Teachers vote
Teachers across the province are voting on a tentative agreement reached between the BC Teachers’ Federation and the provincial government.
The union and BC Public School Employers’ Association agreed to a memorandum of understanding late Tuesday, June 26, after weeks of mediation.
BCTF said in a statement that its executive committee is recommending members ratify the two-year deal, which is retroactive to July 1, 2011 and features “modest improvements,” but provides no improvements to class size and composition or salaries. The union has filed notice of a court action against Bill 22, education legislation passed in March, concerning bargaining rights for class size and composition that were taken out of teachers’ contracts in 2002.
Cathy Fisher, president of Powell River and District Teachers’ Association, said teachers in the district met on Wednesday about the tentative agreement. “People are not that happy and I just don’t know how they’re going to vote,” she said. “If they vote the way they’re feeling, they’ll vote no. Some people are just going to hold their nose and vote yes, because otherwise we’re facing the spectre of legislation.”
There was nothing in the agreement that makes conditions better for students or addresses teachers’ main priorities, Fisher said. “All through this whole thing we’ve said this is about working and learning conditions, this is about class size and composition, this is about making school better for kids.”
However, if teachers vote no, then they would be looking at back-to-work legislation, Fisher added. “The positive side of it is we’d have a year with no job action and there’s no contract strips in it,” she said. “There are some minor improvements in benefits, but it’s almost like crumbs.”
Basically the agreement is a roll-over, Fisher said. “A year without action and start bargaining again in March,” she said.
Teachers started voting on June 27. Results are expected to be announced late tonight, June 29.
Blockade down
Protestors who prevented Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation members from casting ballots in the final poll of the treaty ratification vote are no longer camped out at the Sliammon Salish Centre.
Powell River RCMP enforced an injunction on Tuesday, June 26. Protestors had blockaded the building on Saturday, June 16 and stayed on site, preventing staff from the Sliammon Treaty Society and the Sliammon Development Corporation from going to work. Their offices are on the second floor of the building.
Powell River RCMP Staff Sergeant Andy Brinton said protestors complied and no arrests had to be made. “They took their camp down,” he said.
The terms of the injunction include a 100-metre no-go area around the centre until after the vote, scheduled for Tuesday, July 10. “The RCMP plan on having a presence on the 10th, should there be any activity that prevents the vote from going ahead,” Brinton said. “If any part of the injunction is breached, we’ll deal with it at whatever level we have to. Our goal is always to try to deal with it at the lowest level possible.”
“It’s a shame that it had to go this far,” Tla’amin Chief Clint Williams said. “The only thing that I want to make sure that we do is give the Sliammon people an opportunity to vote. We don’t want to see that taken away.”
Williams also said he appreciated the RCMP’s efforts. “This isn’t something that I’m terribly proud of, but it’s something that we had to do in order to get things back on track to vote."
