B.C. teachers union says new contract puts teachers in 'top tier' in Canada

Cheryl Chan , The Canadian Press - Yesterday 

The B.C. Teachers Federation has reached a tentative deal with the province that the union says will take them from near the bottom to the “top tier” of pay in Canada.


Clint Johnston, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation.© Provided by Vancouver Sun

The tentative agreement was reached Friday, according to a statement by the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, which negotiates on behalf of the provincial government

“Teachers play an incredibly important role in the lives of their students and their communities,” said Leanne Bowes, executive director of labour relations for the employers. “The dedication of teachers throughout the pandemic has brought much needed support to so many families.

“We are pleased to have negotiated a tentative collective agreement that will continue supporting teachers into the future.”

The details of the agreement have not been made public but BCTF president Clint Johnston said it comes with significant salary and other gains for teachers.

“If ratified, this agreement will take us from near the lowest-paid teachers in Canada into the top tier,” Johnston said in a statement. “I am deeply grateful to the members of the team who worked so hard to get us to this point.”

Johnston said the agreement was reached after more than 50 days of bargaining and the union executive is recommending that its members ratify the contract. The union represents nearly 49,000 teachers in B.C.’s public school K-12 system.

In the statement sent Sunday, Johnston said the annual pay for teachers at the top of the salary grid will be $10,000 to $13,500 more per year than it is now by the third year.

“For the first time ever, experienced B.C. teachers will cross the $100,000-per-year threshold putting you much closer to, or even above, teachers in places like Calgary and Toronto,” he said.

By the end of the three-year term, Johnston said, new members’ annual salary will be approximately $6,000 to $8,500 per year higher than it is now, depending on their grid placement and category.

Other improvements in the deal include 10 additional minutes of preparation time for elementary teachers, improvements to heath and maternity benefits and a provincial minimum standard for professional development funding, the statement said.

Bargaining for a collective agreement began March 15. Both the members of the employers’ group and BCTF members will have to ratify the tentative deal. A vote will be held by each union local between Nov. 16 and 18.

Catching up to Canada’s best-paid teachers has been a priority for the federation for years, and the gains, if ratified, will help address recruitment and retention challenges, the statement said.

B.C. Public School Employers’ Association said the agreement follows the provincial shared recovery mandate, which sets out specific wage increases, including inflation protection, while ensuring the government has the resources to protect services and support economic recovery.

The mandate promises a flat salary increase of 25 cents per hour plus 3.24 per cent in the first year, a 5.5 per cent salary bump in year two and a two per cent increase in year three. The final two years also include potential cost-of-living adjustments.

The union said there were challenges and frustrations of negotiating teacher workloads, but the bargaining team feels the agreement is the best it could get.

“Personally, I do not believe that any form of job action would result in any significant changes to workload at this time,” Johnston said in the statement.

Meanwhile, another B.C. union has announced it has reached a tentative agreement with Victoria.

The Professional Employees Association representing 1,200 professionals including agrologist, foresters, pharmacists, engineers and psychologists, has been at the negotiating table with the B.C. Public Service Agency for 28 days.

The tentative agreement includes general wage increases over three years.

In the first year, workers will receive a 25 cent increase per hour and a 3.24 per cent general wage increase. In year 2, the increase ranges from 5.5 per cent to 6.75 per cent depending on the rate of inflation, while in year 3, the inflation-dependent increase is two to three per cent.

The agreement also include increases in the top wage scale, a five-day sick leave for workers and cultural leave for Indigenous employees.

Voting on ratification runs Nov. 8-22.

The successful round of bargaining followed failed talks that started in April but reached an impasse in May after the union said wage proposals failed to address rising cost of living. Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike in June, and a 72-hour strike notice was issued in August.

Both tentative deals come two weeks after the B.C. General Employees’ Union, the largest union representing B.C. government workers, ratified a new three-year agreement by a slim margin.

Related
Three-year deal for BCGEU members ratified by slim margin
BCGEU reaches tentative agreement with Victoria on an up-to-14-per-cent wage hike
B.C. hospital employees, province reach tentative agreement

Lula’s victory in Brazil strengthens the left in Latin America

With the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in this Sunday's elections in Brazil, the Latin American left has regained control of the continent's main bastion and economy in a year in which Colombia has a progressive government for the first time in its history.


Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva bows to his wife Rosangela 'Janja' da Silva. - Lincon Zarbietti/dpa© Provided by News 360

Lula's victory has a fundamental geopolitical repercussion for the continent since it not only implies a hard defeat for the ultra-right wing embodied by Jair Bolsonaro but also the consolidation of the left in a region that in the last year has seen how progressive candidacies have prevailed in Chile, Honduras, Peru and Colombia.

The right-wing campaigns to discredit and stigmatize the left-wing candidates, who are constantly accused of seeking a Venezuelan-style drift in their countries, have been of no use. On the other hand, it was the poor management of the pandemic and its economic consequences that would have prevailed among the electorate when it came to choosing Lula in Brazil or Gustavo Petro in Colombia.

After the region's slide to the right in recent years, in 2018 Mexico was the first to reverse this situation with the election of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is entering his final stretch as president. It was followed by Alberto Fernández's Argentina and Luis Arce's Bolivia, after the 2019 political crisis with which the right wing had a brief stint in power.

The return of the left brought with it historic events such as the election of Xiomara Castro in Honduras, thus becoming the first woman to govern the small Central American country, that of Gustavo Petro, in Colombia, the first president of this ideology to lead from Casa Nariño, or that of the son of peasant Pedro Castillo in Peru.

The Peruvian is the most convulsive mandate for the moment of this new wave of the Latin American left. Suspicions and accusations of corruption, as well as the almost constant departure of members of his cabinet, surround a Castillo cornered by a hostile Congress that from the first moment has sought to oust him from office.

In Colombia, meanwhile, aspirations to overcome the entrenched internal conflict aggravated during the previous government of Iván Duque led Gustavo Petro to victory in the elections, while in Chile, Gabriel Boric became the youngest head of state to be elected.

Unlike now, the previous rise of the left in the continent back in the first decade of the new millennium was due to the commodities boom, the benefits of which paid for the social policies that in Lula's first Brazil, for example, managed to lift 30 million people out of poverty.

However, the middle class that emerged from those social measures is increasingly shrinking after years of neoliberal policies, now spurred on by the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the pronounced inflation caused by the war in Ukraine, or the migratory crises.

In Ecuador, one of the few countries in the region led from the right, the strong and sometimes violent protests over the increase in fuel, food and basic goods prices at the middle of the year have posed a major challenge to Guillermo Lasso. Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as El Salvador in Central America - with four other countries further to the center of the political spectrum - are the remaining countries with conservative governments.

Protests such as those that have taken place in Argentina almost since Fernández was elected; in Chile, where Boric, as in previous governments, has to continue to face strong protests from the south of the country over the Mapuche issue; or in Cuba and Nicaragua, where the opposition demands the departure of their respective governments and a greater dose of democracy and freedom.

The weight of Lula's triumph is indisputable because with Brazil the left will govern 86 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean and places the country once again in an international political relevance that Bolsonaro had stripped it of with some of his decisions, such as his mismanagement of the pandemic or his belligerence with the environmental issue.

Lula ally pays tribute to Dom Phillips and vows to protect the Amazon

Tom Phillips in São Paulo - 

The politician tipped to become Brazil’s new environment minister has paid tribute to the murdered British journalist Dom Phillips and said Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s incoming government will battle to honour the memory of the rainforest martyrs killed trying to safeguard the Amazon.


Photograph: Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

Speaking to the Guardian after Lula’s historic election victory on Sunday, Marina Silva said Brazil now had the chance to build “a new democratic ecosystem” in which conservation, sustainability and the climate crisis will take centre stage after Jair Bolsonaro’s era of Amazon destruction.

Related: Poverty, housing and the Amazon: Lula’s in-tray as president-elect of Brazil

“It’s so sad to know that many people who dreamed of this moment and fought for this moment are no longer here. That is what lies behind this great effort to honour them,” said Silva, an Amazon-born environmentalist who was Lula’s environment minister from 2003 until 2008 and was recently elected to congress.

Silva paid tribute to Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who were killed in the Amazon in June – a crime that shocked the world and exposed the environmental catastrophe playing out under Bolsonaro.

“This is a long-running struggle and lamentably Chico Mendes, Sister Dorothy [Stang], Dom Phillips, Bruno and all those who have fallen as part of this struggle [are no longer with us],” said Silva, who also honoured the Indigenous and environmental activists killed during Bolsonaro’s four-year administration.

In his first speech as president-elect, Lula pledged to make the environment one of his government’s top priorities, telling journalists: “We are going to fight for zero deforestation in the Amazon”.

Lula, who managed to dramatically reduce deforestation during his two-term government, said Brazil would retake a lead role in the fight against the climate crisis and that he was open to international collaboration to protect its environment.

On Sunday Norway’s environment minister said the Amazon Fund – a billion-dollar international kitty designed to support Amazon protection efforts – would be reactivated, having been frozen as a result of the “head-on collision with Bolsonaro” over deforestation.

Lula is expected to send a high-level delegation to next month’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.

“Brazil and the planet need the Amazon alive,” Lula told reporters, vowing to crack down on illegal mining, logging and ranching. “One standing tree is worth more than tons of wood that are illegally extracted by those who think only of easy profits.”

“When an Indigenous child is murdered because of the greed of environmental predators, part of humanity dies too,” Lula added.

Marina Silva, who was born in a remote rubber tapping community in the Amazon state of Acre, said such commitments were “a question of honouring all of the legacies and the memories of all those who have lost their lives, so that Brazil can be a democratic country which fights inequality in a sustainable manner.”

Marcio Astrini, the head of an umbrella group of NGOs called the Climate Observatory, said he was heartened by Lula’s message.

“This is the first time I have heard a president-elect talk about putting an end to deforestation in the Amazon. He didn’t need to do this, if he wasn’t convinced it was possible,” Astrini said. “I believe he is genuinely really convinced that the environmental agenda is something that needs to be treated as a prioirty in his government.”

Related: ‘Last-chance saloon’: race to wreck the Amazon as prospect of Bolsonaro defeat looms

Astrini admitted the Amazon’s problems would not disappear overnight. Deforestation numbers – which have increased dramatically under Bolsonaro – were unlikely to fall significantly next year because of the rotten “inheritance” left by the rightwing incumbent.

Amazon destruction has exploded in the lead-up to the election as environmental criminals raced to raze the rainforest before Bolsonaro lost power. An area almost the size of Greater London was lost last month alone.

“But you need to start somewhere,” Astrini said. “The next four years are going to be a window of opportunity for us to recover that which has been ruined and build a consensus so that never again do we witness … the same kind of destruction.”

Democratic U.S. senator wants probe into Saudi firm's stake in Twitter

By David Shepardson - 


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy said on Monday he wants a U.S. national security review of a Saudi Arabian conglomerate's stake in Twitter Inc after Elon Musk's takeover of the social media company.

Murphy said he was asking the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers — "to conduct an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia's purchase of Twitter."


Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal attends the investment conference in Riyadh© Reuters/Faisal Al Nasser

Most foreigners seeking to take even noncontrolling stakes in U.S. companies must seek approval from CFIUS, a powerful Treasury-led committee that reviews transactions for national security concerns and has the power to block them.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company and the private office of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said they will continue their ownership of Twitter shares valued at $1.89 billion, according to a statement tweeted by Prince Alwaleed.

"The deal is in line with the long-term investment strategy which Kingdom Holding Company is known for," the statement said.

Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding is 16.9% owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"We should be concerned that the Saudis, who have a clear interest in repressing political speech and impacting U.S. politics, are now the second-largest owner of a major social media platform," Murphy wrote on Twitter "There is a clear national security issue at stake and CFIUS should do a review."

The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately comment. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for U.S. Treasury, which leads CFIUS, declined to comment.

Musk last week closed the $44 billion deal announced in April to take Twitter private. Banks including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp committed to provide $13 billion in debt financing.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Franklin Paul and Matthew Lewis)

JUST LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY
Modern-scale Pearl River formed 30 mln yrs ago: study

Wang Chenxi - 

Aerial photo taken on April 12, 2022 shows the source region of the Pearl River in Zhanyi District of Qujing, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)


BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Researchers from Chinese and American institutions studying sedimentary records from the northern South China Sea recently determined that the modern-scale Pearl River was formed 30 million years ago.

Scientists have done a lot of research on the evolution history of the Pearl River. Due to the lack of continuous and high-resolution sedimentary records over a long geological time, its evolution history had been poorly understood.

Researchers from the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Louisiana State University and other Chinese and American institutions used sediments from the latest deep sea drilling core in the northern South China Sea in this study.

They reconstructed the evolutionary history of the Pearl River by tracing changes in clay mineral assemblages and Strontium-Neodymium isotopic compositions of the sediments.

The study, which was published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, found that the modern-scale Pearl River drainage system was formed 30 million years ago and began to play an important role in the evolution of the sedimentary environment of the northern South China Sea.

Tectonic deformation, mainly the elevated southeastern Tibetan Plateau, contributed to the topographic reversal in the South China Block, thus promoting the westward expansion and formation of the main body of the Pearl River, according to the study. ■

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Ferdinand Marcos rules out state of calamity following the passage of storm ‘Nalgae’ through the Philippines

Daniel Stewart - News 360

The President of the Philippines, Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr, has indicated that it is not necessary to declare a state of calamity in the whole country, after the passage of tropical storm 'Nalgae' that has left a hundred dead and more than a million affected.


Flooding in the Philippines following the passage of tropical storm 'Nalgae'. - ROUELLE UMALI / XINHUA NEWS / CONTACTOPHOTO

Marcos Jr. said that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has explained that it is unnecessary to decree a state of calamity since the effects of Nalgae have been "very localized", reports PhilStar.

"We are talking about the east coast of Quezon, Cavite, and Maguindanao (...) those are the areas (...) there is no need to decree national calamity for other regions," the Philippine president justified.

 Nationwide State of Calamity due to ‘Paeng’ not necessary — Marcos

The recommendation of the Department of Environment and Disaster comes shortly after it first recommended the declaration of a state of calamity following the passage of 'Nalgae' in the Philippines, after 16 of the 17 regions of the country were at "high risk" due to the consequences of the storm.

As 'Nalgae' leaves the radar of the Philippine authorities, tropical storm 'Queenie' has appeared in the last hours, hitting the west and southwest of the country in the regions of Visayas and Mindanao.

At least 98 people have died and more than 1.8 million have been affected by flooding caused by heavy rains. There are dozens of injured and about 70 missing. The rainfall has caused power outages, including in the capital Manila, where many districts are still without power, as well as the cancellation of numerous flights.

Due to the torrential rains, the alert is maintained for possible landslides and floods, the main causes of the almost one hundred deaths that have been recorded so far. 'Nalgae' is the twelfth tropical storm to hit the Philippines so far in 2022.

NALGAE IS PAENG

Images of navy ships sunken in wake of Tropical Storm ‘Paeng’ cause social media alarm

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/10/images-of-navy-ships-sunken-in-wake-of.html

Philippines Tropical Storm Nalgae death toll jumps to 98

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/10/philippines-tropical-storm-nalgae-death.html

At least 67 killed as storm lashes southern Philippines

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/10/at-least-67-killed-as-storm-lashes.html

Trump Calls U.S. 'Evil,' Suggests Biden Deserves 'Electric Chair'

Andrew Stanton - Yesterday 

Former President Donald Trump described the U.S. as "Evil" and said he would be sentenced to the "Electric Chair" if he faced the same corruption allegations that are lobbed against President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.


In this image, former President Donald Trump speaks in Washington, D.C. on July 26, 2022. Trump said the United States is “evil”and that if he “had what [President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden] had,” he would face the electric chair in a Truth Social post on Sunday.© Drew Angerer/Getty Images

"The Witch Hunt continues, and after 6 years and millions of pages of documents, they've got nothing. If I had what Hunter and Joe had, it would be the Electric Chair. Our Country is Rigged, Crooked, and Evil - We must bring it back, and FAST. Next stop, Communism!" Trump posted Sunday morning on his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump continues to face a flurry of investigations into his businesses, conduct surrounding the 2020 presidential election and whether he improperly stored classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. He has maintained his innocence, denouncing each case as a politically-motivated "witch hunt," and has repeatedly cast the Biden family as corrupt.

The former president's remarks came after the criminal trial into whether his personal business—The Trump Organization—committed tax fraud between 2005 and 2021 began Monday. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office charged the Trump Organization with nine counts of tax fraud, conspiracy and other offenses including falsifying business records. The company pleaded not guilty, and Trump has not been personally charged.

Everything To Know As The Trump Organization Tax Fraud Trial Begins

View on Watch

In a separate post, Trump noted the trial is beginning just weeks before the midterm elections, when voters will pick between Democrats and Republicans in key races that will shape the second half of Biden's first term. The election will also serve as a benchmark of Trump's sway among the general electorate after his endorsed candidates dominated the GOP primaries.

"There has not been such a case (Criminal) brought in the United States before, handcuffs for the Executive, and all. Democrat 'Peekaboo' James is also happening just before the Election, a NO NO. Disgraceful!!!" he wrote.

Trump referred to New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil lawsuit seeking at least $250 million in repayment from allegedly fraudulent practices for New York taxpayers. The suit claims the Trump family enriched themselves with "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentations" and that Trump "grossly" inflated his net worth by billions of dollars.

Attorney Ron Filipkowski, a frequent Trump critic, tweeted that the post indicates Trump may be "concerned" about the Trump Organization trial.

"You would never know that the former CFO of Trump Org was testifying for the prosecution in open court this week. Someone seems concerned," he tweeted.

Trump Accuses Biden Family of Corruption

Trump and his allies have long accused Biden of his own corruption over Hunter Biden's business dealings. An investigation into Hunter Biden was launched in 2018 regarding potential money laundering and campaign finance, tax and foreign lobbying laws violations. Republicans have pledged to initiate more investigations if they retake a majority in Congress in the midterms.

The post also came as the former president faces criticism for not publicly condemning the attack against Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Friday.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.

Rousseff believes that «the time has come» for the PT to return to govern Brazil

Daniel Stewart - Yesterday 

Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has stated that "the time has come" for the Workers' Party (PT), of which both she and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are members, to return to govern Brazil after exercising her right to vote in the second round of the presidential elections to be held this Sunday.


Archive - Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff - UGT© Provided by News 360

Rousseff voted in the morning at a school in the region of Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte, accompanied by state deputies of her party.

"I have a great expectation of victory. When I left the Planalto Palace because of that absolutely illegal and fraudulent 'impeachment' I said we would return. For me today is the day. The time has come to return," he said, according to the newspaper 'Folha de Sao Paulo'.

The former president has stressed that the PT's specialty is to win elections in second round and they failed to do so in 2018 only because Lula was not the candidate. "In Lula's two elections and in my two elections we never won in the first round. We always came in just. But the people always won in the second round," he has reviewed.

Rousseff was received by PT supporters. There were also supporters of the candidate Jair Bolsonaro who launched proclamations in favor of the current president.

World Leaders, Entertainment Figures Celebrate Outcome Of Brazilian Presidential Election As Lula Pledges Fight For Climate, Culture

Nancy Tartaglione - 

World Leaders, Entertainment Figures Celebrate Outcome Of Brazilian Presidential Election As Lula Pledges Fight For Climate, Culture© Getty Images

Myriad world leaders and entertainment figures are celebrating the victory of and congratulating Brazil’s President-elect Inácio Lula da Silva who beat far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s pivotal run-off.

In his first speech, Lula, as he is known, thanked his supporters and said it was a victory for Brazilians who “want more liberty, equality and fraternity in our country.

He also quickly addressed key environmental issues, pledging, “We will fight for zero deforestation in the Amazon” and saying he was open to international cooperation to protect the rainforest. “Brazil and the planet need the Amazon alive.”

There had been concern that another four years of a Bolsonaro government would have led to further deforestation.

Also contrary to Bolsonaro, Lula spoke of the need for access to cinema and cultural goods, “because culture feeds our soul,” he said in his victory speech. Bolsonaro had dissolved Brazil’s Ministry of Culture in 2019.

Among those celebrating Lula’s victory, was environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio who had previously clashed with Bolsonaro:

.”

DEMOCRACTIC ELECTIONS UNDER THREAT

A group of 110 OSCE parliamentarians will monitor the mid-term elections in the U.S.
Daniel Stewart - 
Some 110 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from more than 30 countries will travel to the United States to monitor the mid-term elections scheduled for November 8.


U.S. President Joe Biden at an abortion rights rally ahead of the midterm elections. - Jordan Tovin/SOPA Images via ZUM / DPA© Provided by News 360

"Supported by some 30 staff members, the delegation of parliamentarians is the largest ever deployed. It will work closely with the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Mission, which consists of 40 long-term observers deployed throughout the country and 17 Washington-based experts," the organization said in a statement.

In this sense, the special coordinator of the OSCE short-term observation mission, Margareta Cederfelt, stressed that this initiative demonstrates its "strong commitment to help increase transparency and build confidence in the U.S. electoral system".

For his part, the head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly mission, the Spaniard Pere Joan Pons, emphasized that the OSCE parliamentarians are "sensitive to issues of fairness and ensuring a level playing field for candidates".

"At the same time, as observers, we are impartial and assess elections solely on the basis of their adherence to a set of democratic standards that the United States and all OSCE countries have agreed to," he recalled.

Thus, the OSCE mission will be responsible for monitoring the campaign environment: the legal framework, election administration, new voting technologies, redistricting issues, election day procedures and media coverage.

These elections are of vital importance for the Democratic Party as they will condition its representation in the legislature. U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Sunday that this is not a referendum for his re-election, but a choice between "two very different visions for the country".

Currently, the Democrats have very slim majorities in both houses, while in the House of Representatives they have an advantage of only 10 seats over the Republicans, in the Senate they are equal with the conservative party, although they are favored by the casting vote of Kamala Harris as Speaker of the Upper House.