[Christien]

Wow, that's really surprising. Especially the bit about being rehired as a new hire and losing seniority. My wife is also a teacher, and I couldn't image that happening here. Last time a gov't made significant cuts to education (early 90s) there were teacher walkouts and protest marches down the main streets of every city and town across the province.

I'm the last person to argue on the side of unions, but it sounds like the union really did fail at its job. It should have at least been able to argue for retention of seniority, even if job cuts were truly unavoidable.