Thousands of teachers strike in British Columbia

[struggle4progress]

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Thousands of British Columbia teachers walked off the job on Friday to protest against a government-imposed contract and wage-freeze, despite a ruling that the strike was illegal.

The strike closed schools across the western Canadian province, but teachers said they were willing to face threatened legal punishment to protest what they believe is unfair treatment by the government.

The B.C. Labor Relations Board ruled on Thursday that a strike would be illegal, but lawyers representing the public school employers and 42,000-member B.C. Teachers Federation planned to continue to fight in court.

The job action came as British Columbia's government pushed a bill through the legislature that would extend the teachers' contract to June 30, 2006, without the pay increases or reductions in class size demanded by the union. <snip>

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-10-07T221454Z_01_WRI770945_RTRIDST_0_CANADA-TEACHERS-COL.XML

[tuvor]

1. The teachers didn't seem too concerned in July and August.

Sorry if I feel they're being just a tad disingenuous when they say it's for the children.