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Friday, March 2, 2012
Teachers prepare to strike Edward Hill News staff
Teachers will likely escalate their job action, possibly to a full strike next week, even if the province passes back-to-work legislation. Debate on the government’s bill to end the existing job action and bring in a mediator was expected to be underway Thursday and possibly into the weekend. On Thursday, B.C. Teachers Federation was expected to release results of its membership vote for a full blown strike, under parameters set out by the B.C. Labour Relations Board. Since September, teachers have refused administrative duties under a work-to-rule job action. “In all likelihood there will be a change to the teach-only campaign,” said Patrick Henry, president of the Sooke Teachers’ Association. If the province passes its legislation before Monday, he suspects educators won’t be cowed. Inside “I don’t think teachers have a ■ Students rally choice. If we let this to support their stand complacently, teachers. we will be comPage A5 plicit in the erosion and dismantling of ■ Check for updates learning conditions to this story at in the classroom,” goldstreamgazette. Henry said. “The com stakes could not be higher. The government has provoked an already toxic relationship with teachers.” Bill 22, the Education Improvement Act, would end the strike as it exists, impose a six-month “cooling-off period” and set an appointment of a mediator to look at non-monetary issues such as class size and composition. It gives $165 million over three years to help address class size and special needs issues. True to the spirit of their relationship, the BCTF calls the legislation “cynical” and says it prohibits teachers from bargaining class size, average class size, staffing levels
Belmont special education teacher Ruth McDonald holds up signs at the teacher demonstration at the secondary school on Monday. The SD 62 teachers’ union says escalating their job action in the face of back to work legislation is highly likely. Charla Huber/News staff
or case loads for another two years. It also imposes no limit on class sizes beyond Grade 3, the BCTF says. “This bill ... is designed to make teachers complicit in stripping the remaining protections in our own collective agreement,” said BCTF president Susan Lambert in a release. “It’s absolutely Orwellian.” Penalty provisions in Bill 22 would impose a $1.3 million fine per day on the BCTF and up to $475 a day on individual teachers for a wildcat strike. “The legislation is intended to raise the stakes of any job action. It’s offensive beyond any description,” Henry said. “They have created a situation where we have nothing — and nothing to lose.” Sooke School District officials are preparing for teachers to walk out of classrooms next week. Superintendent Jim Cambridge agreed a strike is “quite likely.”
“We are getting our communication plan together to inform parents so they can plan for childcare,” he said. Rules set out by the labour board prohibits a picket line — an “information line” is allowed — which allows other union members and non-union staff to enter schools. “We are doing our regular strike procedures,” Cambridge said. “We’re just waiting to see what happens.” NDP house leader and Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan said his party will try to amend the legislation to give a broader scope to the mediator to allow “good faith bargaining.” “This bill will not improve conditions for kids. We will oppose this bill,” Horgan said on Wednesday. Horgan said NDP legislators are prepared to try and delay this bill, even with filibusters reminiscent of 2006, but he sus-
pects the B.C. Liberals won’t rush this law through. “Premier (Christy Clark) isn’t looking for a solution, it’s about presenting teachers as evildoers and getting parents agitated that students will lose instruction time,” he said. Horgan also noted the clock is ticking for the government to honour a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that overturned an unconstitutional law from 2002 that stripped class size and composition from the teachers’ right to bargain. The government says Bill 22 and $165 million fund will address that ruling. “The problem is you have the end of the existing contract and a decade-old action by the government that violates the rights of collective bargaining,” Horgan said. “It’s made a complicated situation even more complicated.”
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