Plenty of people taking to social media to voice their thoughts on the teachers’ dispute

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Facebook and Twitter are becoming major battlegrounds as the labour dispute between the provincial government and public school teachers continues to heat up.

With rotating strikes and a partial lockout looming, we’ve taken a sample of the reaction on social media.

Simply search the hashtag #bced on Twitter and your screen will be flooded with comments on the ongoing dispute.

 

 

We’ve seen a flood of comments on News1130.com; one reader’s comments on an article about June’s partial lockout reads:

“Good move on the government’s part. The teacher’s union needs to be shown who’s the boss… and it isn’t them, it is the employer who is in charge, not the employees.”

News1130‘s listener line has been lighting up with your take on the matter; most people seem to be siding with the teachers.

“In order to get good teachers and keep teachers we need to pay them properly,” says one caller.

“I’m tired of all these threats from the government that they are going to take their pay and do this and do that. Come on, let’s get in here and negotiate. Class size does matter,” says another.

“The government is withholding money from the teachers. That means they’re not using my tax dollars to pay for the teachers. Therefore, they are not paying the teachers. I want a cut in my taxes,” demands another caller.

“I blame Christy Clark for this. They have pushed our teachers to this. They are desperate trying to get everybody to understand just what they are facing, being completely chronically underfunded,”says a fourth.

But some are just calling for diplomacy and want both sides to come together.

“[We] need somebody, a middle man that will decide on the contract and present both sides and see what each other have to offer.”

High school teachers will be locked out June 25th and 26th. Elementary teachers will also be locked out for the day on June 27th.

Rotating strikes go Monday through Thursday next week. Each school in the province is closed for one of those days.

Teachers began job action a month ago over wages, classroom sizes, and contract term length.