The Labour Relations Board ruled teachers cant picket schools during their three-day strike next week, but teachers plan to hold demonstrations and hand out leaflets.
Their legal walkout runs from Monday to Wednesday. Administrators and non-union staff will be working, as well as unionized support staff, although the latter have been warned by union leadership not to perform teacher duties.
Chris Harris, president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association said teachers would abide by strike parameters outlined by the Labour Relations Board.
What you can expect [next week] is there will be a presence of teachers at schools demonstrating with signs and leafleting, Harris said Friday morning. Its not a picket line, but it is a demonstrationits not a picket line in the sense were going to be blocking entrances or anything like that.
Demonstrations might look different from one school to another. In some cases, teachers may gather at a corner by a school, a block away at a busy intersection or in front of a school.
It all depends what the work sites look like, Harris said.
Its unclear if any parents will drop their children off at schools. The Vancouver School Board and many other districts are strongly suggesting families find other accommodations for students, but schools are technically open.
The school districts made it clear that theyre not set up for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with teachers not there, to have children in the building, Harris said. Obviously if the children show up and the parents arent there, theyre going to do what they need to do to make sure that children are safe, but the expectation from what Ive heard about whats publicly coming from the Vancouver School Board is that theyre asking for parents not to send their children to school those days.
VSB spokesperson Kurt Heinrich clarified district plans with the Courier Friday. He confirmed the district is urging parents to treat Monday through Wednesday as non-instructional days. While the doors to our schools will not be locked, parents, who for whatever reason drop off their students, will be contacted by administrative staff to arrange for safe passage home of their students. Supervision will only be provided on an emergency basis. We are really stressing to all parents that they need to be making alternative childcare arrangements for early next week, Heinrich wrote in an email. From the VSBs perspective, he added, there are no prohibitions preventing teachers from leafleting or demonstrating at schools.
Teachers are telling us they are planning to have a line of protest. We expect some teachers to be wearing placards and handing out flyers. However, we have been told that they will not be picketing. That means that other support staff will be able to go to work as usual on Monday, he explained.
Heinrich said CUPE and IUOE union leadership have indicated that, because there will be no pickets, they will be going to work as usual. At this time, we understand daycare will be operating on our school sites, but we are urging parents to contact their daycare providers to confirm this.
Harris said he understand the position of other unionized staff working at schools.
Obviously, we stand in solidarity with our other unions that work in schools. However, we understand that they were not part of the [Labour Relations Board] essential services order. While we know that many of our union colleagues in the schools really wish that they could stand with us in solidarity, theres a different legal framework, but Im not going to speak for other unionstheyll have to speak for themselves on that.
CUPE issued a March 1 job action update to its members working in schools that stated, in part: CUPE members should report to work and perform their regular duties. School district employers will not close schools or lay off members during the dispute. Regular duties should be continued. This may include dealing with backlogged work, special cleaning, meetings or Pro-D. This should not include student supervision, which is teacher and administrator work.
Twitter: @Naoibh
