The Vancouver School Board wants the teachers’ union and their employers’ association to submit to binding arbitration to reach a contract settlement.
The VSB voted July 7 to call on the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the Government of B.C. to engage in binding arbitration.
“It appears that their negotiations have come to a standstill,” said Vision Vancouver VSB board chairperson Patti Bacchus. “And we are hearing from students themselves and parents that it’s been very difficult with the end of the school year going away under job action and the lockout in addition to the cancellation of summer school, and now we have no end in sight.”
The board previously called for an industrial inquiry commissioner, and after that didn’t happen, mediation.
Bacchus believes the call for mediation was “partially successful” because both parties approved two different mediators who turned the job down because the BCTF and B.C. Public School Employers’ Association are too far apart.
Bacchus criticized the government for establishing “preconditions” to mediation, as reported by the BCTF.
“I don’t suspect either party is going to be very keen on binding arbitration,” she said. “But what I hope is public pressure will build and I believe there is strong public support for getting this solved. I think most of the public is really sick of this dispute. We certainly are and want it solved… and I don’t see any other way we’re going to get there in a timely way.”
Bacchus believes pushing for binding arbitration could provoke the BCTF and BCPSEA to negotiate a settlement.
“If there are things they specifically want to accomplish in this they may have to go back to the table and compromise in some other areas,” she said. “They can’t be allowed to hold the whole system hostage for month after month.”
Vision Vancouver school board trustee Mike Lombardi launched a Facebook page July 7 called “We Want Arbitration Now.”
