Parents’ hopes for their children to start the school year on time evaporated when veteran mediator Vince Ready declared an impasse on talks between British Columbia teachers and their employer Saturday, August 30.
“I’m very disappointed for students, parents and teachers,” said education minister Peter Fassbender in a media release Saturday night.
“It is simply wrong and misguided for the [BC Teachers Federation] leadership to expect a bigger compensation package than all the other public sector workers simply because they are willing to shut down schools,” he said. “Their demands would plunge BC into deficit. No mediator can bridge that kind of gap.”
Ready had worked to create a framework for mediation with the bargaining teams of BCTF and BC Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) since Thursday, August 28, but by Saturday evening he said that both sides seemed to be intractable.
BCPSEA negotiator Peter Cameron said that the government had made concessions but there was not enough common ground to continue the current round of talks.
Cameron added that the teachers’ union needs to reduce its demands for more money before issues around class size and composition can be discussed.
Jim Iker, BCTF president, said the union had scaled back its demands by $125 million. BCPSEA, however, claimed that BCTF’s proposals for more preparation time for elementary school teachers would cost more than $86 million.
The union has also been seeking $225 million to address class size and composition after the BC Supreme Court concluded, in two separate rulings, that the right to include those issues in collective bargaining had been illegally stripped from earlier contracts—a decision which the provincial government is currently appealing.
Iker said the union will continue its strike until the provincial government brings more funding for the public school system to the table.
He asked British Columbians to contact their elected representatives in Victoria to help them support the teachers.
“Let them know it’s time for government to compromise,” he said, and to “increase funding to address the issues related to class size, and composition and learning specialist levels.”
Iker has also asked for a face-to-face meeting with Premier Christy Clark.
On Friday, August 29, Powell River Superintendent of Schools Jay Yule posted a letter to School District 47’s website (www.sd47.bc.ca) apologizing to parents for the uncertainty of the school year’s start and giving an update on the bargaining talks.
A date has not been set for the next round of talks and Fassbender has reiterated the government’s plan not to legislate an end to the strike.
“Legislating an end to the dispute is the wrong thing to do,” said the education minister, adding that “legislation leads to litigation. We have to stop doing it that way.”
