Friday, May 27, 2011

Breaking news: BC teachers to hold strike vote in June

The BCTF Representative Assembly just passed a motion to hold a strike vote in late June if there is no progress at bargaining.

There has been no commitment from government to fund improved class sizes and composition despite a court ruling that will reinstate these collective agreement provisions. Improvements to working and learning conditions are teachers' number one issue.

Teachers are frustrated that the BC government continues to adhere to an outdated and unfair "net zero" mandate, while inflation runs at over 3% and teachers have fallen to eight in Canada with respect to salaries.

In addition, the government has indicated it wants significant concessions and that there is no money for any contract improvements in the next two years.

In a news release, the BCTF reports:

"BCTF President Susan Lambert emphasized that teachers do not take this decision lightly. The vote, to be supervised by the Labour Relations Board, will determine whether teachers will launch province-wide collective action with the start of the next school year in September. Initially the job action would involve teachers’ refusal to undertake administrative tasks or to attend unnecessary meetings, while focusing all their energies on the classroom.

“If we need to take this action in the fall we will begin by focusing on the central and joyful work of our profession—teaching our students,” Lambert said. “Parents may not even notice much of a change as teachers intend to continue serving our students in the classroom and communicating with parents about students’ progress. However, we will not be doing administrative work or attending meetings with management.”

Lambert emphasized that teachers want to achieve a negotiated settlement. Although the BCTF and its locals have been bargaining since the beginning of March, progress so far has been limited. “We’re facing resistance at both local and provincial tables, with the BC Public School Employers’ Association stalling on the split of issues and local trustees refusing to bargain anything of substance,” Lambert said.

Meanwhile, teachers have identified clear objectives for this round of bargaining. Their top priorities include: improving teaching and learning conditions (class size and composition, caseloads, learning specialist ratios, and time for class preparation), a fair and reasonable compensation package including benefit improvements commensurate with teachers across Canada, and a return to local bargaining as the best solution to local issues.

Lambert noted that negotiations are taking place in the wake of a BC Supreme Court decision that ruled Liberal legislation which stripped teachers’ contracts and limited their ability to bargain is unconstitutional. The BCTF is urging the government to immediately restore funding levels to make up for the $275 million which was cut every year since 2002, when the legislation was imposed.

“We believe that Premier Clark now has an opportunity to make her “families first” agenda real by restoring funding to schools and services to students this September. After a decade of deteriorating conditions, students should come back to school in September as beneficiaries of the ruling that restores teachers’ bargaining rights,” Lambert said."

4 comments:

  1. Teachers in BC are at 8th right now with respect to salaries. But if we take the governments proposal, then after two years of zero's we will be even further behind other provinces.
    This is not just Alberta and Ontario either. Manitoba and Saskatchewan are both trying to get on par with Alberta right now. Why should BC teachers be left behind again?
    I will vote yes for the strike vote.

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  2. We have new teachers complaining they can't get full time work and yet wage parity with other provinces is important? In these economic times it seems a bit misguided. If the pay was so bad there would not be the numbers getting laid off every year.

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  3. GDP predictions and inflation for BC are both over 3%. Teachers, like all workers, should receive a fair increase in this environment, not a six percent cut which is what the zeros will equate to.

    The BCTF is also aiming to shorten the salary grid which helps teachers in the early years of their career when they are often working part time.

    Layoffs over the last decade have been a product of increased class sizes. If funding and class size/composition were restored to 2001 levels, there would be hiring, not layoffs.

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  4. problem about assessment is the concern and expertise of the teachers in BC.

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