Teachers are likely to be on strike as the new school year starts, says British Columbia Teachers Federation President Susan Lambert.
"At this point it is," Lambert said in response to whether the strike will in fact start Sept. 6. "I can only hope that there will a change in heart on the point of view of government."
In late June, B.C. teachers voted 90 per cent in favour of a strike for the new school year if a new collective agreement between the BCTF and the B.C. Public School Employers' Associationwhich represents school boardshad not been completed in time.
Following a break in July and August, both parties returned to the bargaining table Tuesday. Lambert said no progress was made.
The first phase of the strike will start as a "teach-only" campaign, in which teachers will return to classrooms but will put a stop to data collecting, attending staff meetings, additional supervision and formal report cards.
Lambert declined to say what the potential second phase entails, or how long phase one will continue before tactics are elevated.
Official talks for a new collective agreement began March 1.
"You had the back and forth of bargaining, said BCPSEA CEO Hugh Finlayson on the second day of bargaining following the summer break. They pushed to have a strike and had a successful strike vote. So here we are on the 23rd of Augustschools open [Sept. 6]. Our expectation is that we should have probably moved to what I characterize as a constructive alternative phase."
That phase, Finlayson said, would consist of both parties moving towards negotiations and alternatives, rather than persistence in appealing to ideals.
The BCTF is asking for fair and reasonable wages and benefits, improved working and learning conditions, more preparation time and local bargaining for local issues.
The BCPSEA has returned to the bargaining table with a net-zero mandate, meaning that no new money is available. They argue teachers must decide between which needs they want, choosing one benefit over another.
"They haven't changed anything," Lambert said. "Very disappointing that BCPSEA has come back to the table in exactly the same fashion as they had left it in July. We have said consistently that there needs to be government will brought to this table, until that's happened there wont be fruitful bargaining."
With fewer than two weeks before school starts, and with the contract still unsigned, Lambert said the BCTF believed the summer break would allow the BCPSEA return to the provincial government to crunch numbers and come back to the table with new proposals.
"I think BCPSEA should have gone back to government and said this is unrealistic there are problems in the system that need to be fixed. You have the money," Lambert said.
Finlayson disagreed.
"We certainly didn't go back to government to say give us money to solve the $2 billion list the BCTF has," he said.
Collective bargain is about choices and it also a measure of positioning and posturing. I think we need to set the positioning and posturing stuff aside and we need to focus on getting a deal.
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