B.C. teachers voted 86% in favour of a strike, the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) announced late June 10. A provincewide strike vote was held June 9 and 10. In all, 33,387 teachers cast ballots, 28,809 of whom voted yes.
The BCTF has not made a decision yet about whether to call a strike. BCTF president Jim Iker says a decision will be made soon. In the meantime, rotating strikes will continue. Schools close in Vancouver Wednesday. Iker says the BCTF must give 72 hours (three working days) notice for a full-scale strike. The earliest possible day for a strike to start is June 16 or June 17.
“We’re ready to make moves and get down to hard bargaining, but teachers need to see some good faith. This government still has a proposal on the table that would wipe out class size and composition guarantees that the B.C. Supreme Court has twice ruled were illegally stripped from collective agreements," Iker said in a press release. "The government is also entrenched on a salary demand that would see teachers effectively take two more years of zeros, which would make it four in a row. That’s unfair and unreasonable.”
