No sooner will students be back to school than they may be sent home, if a BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) strike vote goes through. The BCTF announced Monday (Aug. 22) that it will hold a strike vote Sept. 20 and 22.
"After working a full school year without a contract, teachers are preparing to take action to resolve outstanding issues at the bargaining table," stated a BCTF news release.
The announcement is actually good news, said School Board Chair Doug Hackett.
"It's pretty much a standard bargaining ploy," he said. "It puts pressure on the employers at the bargaining table."
Hackett said he doesn't think parents have anything to worry about, adding that the school board is encouraging the employers' association to return to the bargaining table. The employers' association halted talks in June stating that they wanted to wait until Monday's BCTF meeting before resuming negotiations.
If a majority of the province's 42,000 teachers vote in favour of a strike, teachers could walk off the job within 72 hours after the results are known.
The BCTF will then decide what sort of service withdrawals will be taken, given the government's 2001 decision to make education an essential service in a move supported by a majority of parent advisory councils and school boards.
"I think that in a labour dispute, children's education should not be at risk," said Hackett. "There are other ways to settle labour disputes and it shouldn't involve children."
Lawyers for both sides will make arguments about what essential means when it comes to schools, and the Labour Relations Board will set out ground rules, but options being considered include withdrawal from extracurricular activities, going to a four-day week or rotating strikes.
This won't make parents happy, said BC Confederation of Parents' Advisory Councils president Kim Howland. "Any disruption to the positive relationship between students and teachers is detrimental to that child's well being and educational achievement," said Howland. "The effect on the whole school communities is still being felt from the last job action."
BC teachers have been without a contract for 15 months. The province said the teachers must accept salary increases of zero in the first two years of the new contract, citing the wage freeze imposed just after they signed their last contract, which gave them 7.5 per cent over three years. Teachers want raises in all three years. The union also wants a chance to negotiate class size limits and other working conditions.
BC Education Minister Shirley Bond said the province won't budge on its position on salary increases, and working conditions are no longer an issue since these previously negotiated terms of teachers' contracts were removed by the Liberals through legislation.
The Chief was unsuccessful in attempting to reach to reach Carl Walker of the Howe Sound Teachers Association.
spaillard@squamishchief.com
