NDP education critic Robin Austin doesn’t want to get involved in contract talk details between B.C. teachers and the provincial government, but he believes the government is negligent by being unwilling to discuss class size and composition, he told Business in Vancouver.
The British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) announced August 31 that it would conduct a limited strike when schools reopen September 6.
The union’s contract expired in June and 90% of teachers voted yes in a province-wide strike vote in late June. Still, BCTF discussions with the provincial government, which started in March, appear stalled.
Salary hikes are the main sticking point, with Education Minister George Abbott committed to no pay raise and the BCTF insisting on one because teachers in other parts of Canada earn more.
In B.C., according to the BCTF, a teacher with five years of post secondary education and 10 years of teaching experience earns $74,353. In Alberta, a similarly qualified teacher earns about $95,000 annually.
Austin would not say whether he believes Abbott should budge on his position of no raise.
What Abbott should do, Austin said, is respect an April British Columbia Supreme Court ruling that the government should put class size and composition restrictions back into the BCTF’s contract.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin struck down two bills, which Premier Christy Clark enacted when she was minister of education, that stripped class size and composition out of the BCTF’s contract.
Griffin gave the government one year to fix that situation.
“The government, it appears, isn’t willing to negotiate class size and composition,” Austin told BIV. “I think that’s wrong because they’ve got to follow the court’s ruling.”
Glen Korstrom
Twitter: GlenKorstrom