Teachers start a three-day strike Monday after voting 87 per cent in favour of escalating their job action.
The vote was in response to provincial government legislation introduced Tuesday to deal with the ongoing labour dispute. The complex legislation known as Bill 22the Education Improvement Actaddresses the teachers job action and deals with collective bargaining on class size and composition.
The B.C. Teachers Federation strike vote on Feb. 28 and 29 saw 27,946 of 32,209 who cast ballots vote yes. About 75 per cent of teachers voted.
[The strike is] needed to send a clear message that Bill 22 is not acceptable and that we want to see a negotiated settlement, Debbie Pawluk, Vancouver Secondary Teachers Association president, said Thursday.
The Labour Relations Board approved the BCTFs strike request under limited conditions. Pickets arent allowed according to Tuesdays ruling. After the initial three-day withdrawal of services, teachers can withdraw services for one day a week. Vancouver school districts two-week spring break starts March 12.
Bill 22 calls for a six-month cooling off period on job action and a mediator to negotiate under the governments net-zero mandate where raises can only be achieved through tradeoffs within the contract. It prohibits job action during the cooling off period with stiff fines slapped on teachers for an illegal walkout. The mediation period runs to June 30. If theres no agreement by that date, the mediator will issue a report with non-binding recommendations.
Education Minister George Abbott told reporters Thursday morning the government doesnt plan to rush through passage of the legislation.
Earlier in the week, when the legislation was introduced, Abbott said: I am reaching the conclusion I am based on my concern that some vulnerable kids in the province are not getting the education they need, theyre not enjoying the successes they deserve as a consequence of phase one job action. So Im not prepared to have that go on.
Chris Harris, president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association, maintains the government isnt interested in a negotiated settlement.
We tried in good faith to negotiate a deal, but clearly thats not what [the B.C. Public School Employers Association] and the government has done through this, Harris said, calling the legislation reprehensible.
Teachers will earn $50 a day in strike pay, while the government stands to save money during the strike. Teachers salaries province-wide total roughly $13 million a day, according to Harris.
Harris said he sympathized with parents struggling to find childcare next week, but said teachers are taking a long-term view of the situation.
The [difficulty] in trying to find childcare for a few days next week is nothing compared to the experiences of children in oversized classrooms over the last 10 years, he said.
Pawluk agreed. Were advocating for ourselves, but more importantly its the learning conditions of our children that were concerned about, she said.
The Vancouver School Board is advising parents to make alternate childcare arrangements during the strike, although schools will be open with administrators on hand. Students who show up wont be turned away.
We recognize obviously its a real challenge for a lot of parents but its just the reality were dealing with considering we will not have enough staff at the school, if the teachers are not there, to provide adequate supervision for all our students, VSB spokesperson Kurt Heinrich said. We wont be turning children away. Our big priority is always safety and security of our students, but we wont have the resources should the teachers strike to properly supervise all of our students.
Twitter: @Naoibh
