The Editor,
Re. "No rush on B.C. teachers’ deal (also, pay them a lot more)" (editorial, Opinion, The Tri-City News, July 11).
I do not agree with The Tri-City News' editorial stating B.C.'s public school teachers should get a higher wage increase than 2% per year in the coming contract.
I am a retired teacher and I found my wages commensurate with the job that I did during my working years.
Also, the teachers in the School District 43 have extremely good extended medical and dental coverage, better than many other districts in B.C., because these benefits were settled before the province took over negotiating these benefits for the rest of the province.
As well, no other jobs receive higher increases in the union sector just because the cost of living in the province is higher than other provinces. If individual teachers in B.C. get higher percentage increases in their negotiations, then there will be less money to hire more teachers, more education assistants and more support staff, which is what will be necessary if we are to keep the class size and composition numbers that the province is required to sustain after the Supreme Court decision on those issues.
The money has to come from somewhere and I think it is asking too much for the provincial government to agree to all the BC Teachers' Federation's negotiating proposals in one contract period. Let's be sensible about these negotiations.
Jeannine Silvestrone, Coquitlam
