Teachers Say Yes To Strike

Written by Canadian Press Thursday, 01 March 2012 03:05 
  The British Columbia Teachers' Federation says 87 per cent of its teachers have voted in favour of a strike. It says of 32,209 ballots cast, 27,946 voted ''yes'' in a vote on the escalation of current job action. The results of the vote comes after six months of teachers skipping their administrative tasks failed to get the province to budge on contract demands. The dispute came to a head on Tuesday when the teachers' union won the right to walk off the job and the government introduced legislation on the same day imposing a cooling-off period in hopes of averting a walkout. The union is asking for a 15 per cent wage increase and improved benefits. The provincial government says that can't happen under its so-called ''net-zero'' mandate, in which public sector workers can't receive pay increases unless the added costs are offset by concessions elsewhere in a contract.