The British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, which represents teachers across the province, has announced a strike vote to take place in early March, and local school officials are taking a cautious approach while advising parents not to expect a work stoppage just yet.
The results of the strike vote will be released on March 6, union officials said, the culmination of challenging negotiations with the provincial government for the past year.
“We’ve been at the bargaining table now for a year and we’ve been more than patient,” said BC Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker.
“We’ve worked really hard to create a sense of calm around bargaining and also give government space to negotiate in good faith, out of the public spotlight.
“Now we’ve had Justice [Susan] Griffin’s ruling on the restoration of our provisions back into the collective agreement on class size, class composition and learning specialist ratios.”
Iker’s comment refers to the recent BC Supreme Court ruling, issued late last month, that ordered teachers’ classroom working conditions back to the pre-2002 levels, previously negotiated before legal battles over class size began. The Liberal government is actively appealing the decision through various channels.
B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender responded to the call for a strike vote and questions about the province’s decision to appeal Justice Griffin’s ruling by calling the BCTF to negotiate for a ten-year contract that would provide “stability” in a press conference Tuesday.
“I believe the court process has to continue – we have filed our appeal – but again, I have said clearly, ever since we were elected as government, our goal is to reach a long-term agreement, to find a negotiated settlement.”
Several superintendents from B.C. school districts filed affidavits with the province’s appeal of the ruling, including Kathy Sawchuk of SD 59, which oversees Peace River South.
Representatives from SD 59 declined immediate comment when contacted for this article.
Fassbender said the strike vote was provocative as far as the bargaining process goes, and argued that certain bargaining points in question were not unilaterally removed by management.
“We clearly were at the table with class size and composition – our negotiator presented a package of proposals. We are still waiting to see the full proposal including the wages from the BCTF,” said Fassbender. “We, again, are committed to making sure that we lay everything on the table and negotiate it at the table.”
However, Iker said that removing class size and composition elements from the collective agreement is not an option.
“They’ve negated everything we’ve just won and they want to strip it all out again, and that’s just not acceptable,” said Iker.
Iker added that the province was demanding major concessions at the bargaining table and offering only a non-retroactive 0.5% salary increase, which he said were strong points of contention leading towards the strike vote.
“The nature of those things – in particular salary and class size, they just came recently – we made the decision that it’s time,” said Iker.
“For us, bargaining is about compromise. Bargaining is about moving forward and not backwards,” he continued. “So part of the decision on taking a strike vote is to put pressure on that table, asking government to come to the table and bargain in good faith, take the concessions off of the table, deal with class size in a satisfactory way.”
While the results of the strike vote would be known late next week, both union and local school officials said that should the stoppage be approved, immediate action would not include closures or disruption to students, removal of teachers from extracurricular activities or production of report cards and communication with parents.
Iker said job action would occur in stages, and that the BCTF would remain at the bargaining table through that time.
Dave Sloan, superintendent for SD 60, which oversees Peace River North, also said he was hopeful that the two sides could come to an agreement before any serious work stoppages took place.
“Negotiations have been going on for quite some time, and a strike vote is not really good news, but it isn’t unexpected in a prolonged negotiation,” Sloan said. “It’s one of the tools that’s available to the Teachers’ Federation, and they’re simply utilizing the tools that they have. We can be hopeful that the parties will find a bargaining solution and there would be no disruption to regular classes.”
Sloan recalled that the last strike was in 2011, but in a limited capacity. He added that while districts do try to plan ahead, they cannot assume that a strike will occur.
“We’re not going to pre-judge, just because a local holds a strike vote doesn’t necessarily guarantee it. It puts them in a position where they can but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will: for us it’s business as usual for as long as it’s business as usual,” said Sloan. “If you’re in education, you’re a perpetual optimist, and you hope that the parties can work it out and that we can get through the school year without an interruption to the students.”
