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Teachers strike closes schools for three days

Government legislation appoints a mediator to settle dispute

 UPDATED   – Powell River teachers walked off the job this week along with 41,000 colleagues across the province for a three-day strike.

BC’s government has introduced legislation to end the job action and appoint a mediator, but it is not expected to be passed into law for at least a week. Schools were closed from Monday to Wednesday, March 5 to 8. Students are expected to return tomorrow, March 9 and March 10, but then a two-week spring break starts on Monday, March 12 until Friday, March 23. Schools reopen on Monday, March 26.

Over 100 people attended a rally in support of public education on Monday afternoon in the parking lot at Canadian Tire. Representatives from the Health Employees’ Union, Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) spoke briefly in support of teachers and Maggie Hathaway, constituency assistant, read a statement from MLA Nicholas Simons. People who attended the rally then spread out along Joyce Avenue to wave to drivers, many of whom honked in support.

Cathy Fisher, president of Powell River and District Teachers’ Association, said teachers received a lot of support the first day of the strike. “People were honking, stopping, bringing cookies,” she said. “There was very little negative response from cars driving by. It’s just been a wonderful day.”

Jay Yule, Powell River’s superintendent of schools for School District 47, said CUPE and exempt staff reported to work on Monday and the district has made arrangements to provide professional development and other productive work to be prepared for the return of the students. “Teachers have been respectful during this strike action, however we hope to see this end quickly to both parties’ satisfaction as this is very disruptive to parents and students,” he said.

Teachers have been working without a contract since June 2011 and have participated in job action since school started last September. They have not been writing report cards, supervising students outside of instructional hours, administering provincial tests, attending staff meetings or performing administrative duties. At issue are a proposed 15 per cent wage increase, class sizes and class composition with respect to special needs students.

BCTF (British Columbia Teachers’ Federation) applied for the right to strike on February 23, the same day the government released a fact finder’s report that concluded it was very unlikely that teachers and the province could reach a negotiated settlement. The report found that the two sides remained far apart despite almost one year of negotiations and more than 75 face-to-face sessions.

On February 28, BC’s Labour Relations Board ruled teachers could strike for three days. Education Minister George Abbott announced Bill 22 on the same day. The legislation suspends teachers’ strike action and establishes a cooling off period. It also appoints a mediator to facilitate bargaining and implements a new $165-million learning improvement fund and other enhancements to K-12 education.

“We’re putting more money into the classroom, we’re improving supports for students and teachers, we’re providing additional teacher compensation where class size exceeds the student limit and we’re restoring the opportunity to bargain class size and related matters,” said Abbott in a statement. “Taken together, these are significant gains that recognize the important role and contribution of teachers.”

But the BCTF says the bill wipes out all current class size and composition limits found in previous legislation and that it has no limits on the number of students with special needs in a class or students in grades four to 12.

Simons said the strike is due to the government’s mismanagement of education and its disrespectful approach to teachers. “The Liberals have politicized the issue unnecessarily to distract attention from the real issues,” he said. “The bill we are debating this week does nothing to fix the problems caused by the government’s illegal tampering with teachers’ contracts.”


Teachers go out on strike

Full-scale action begins Monday

UPDATED MARCH 2:  Teachers across the province begin three days of full-scale strike action Monday, March 5, a response to the provincial government’s bill aimed at settling the labour dispute. British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) said its members voted 87 per cent in favour of escalating job action to a walkout.

Cathy Fisher, president of Powell River and District Teachers’ Association, said conditions for students have deteriorated over the last 10 years and they will not improve unless teachers take an extraordinary stand. “Teachers do not take this action lightly,” she said. “We realize the inconvenience this may cause for families, but we believe this government's education policies have caused and continue to cause harm to students that is much greater and far-reaching than the loss of three school days of school.”

School District 47 has sent a letter to parents that requests they keep their children at home on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The letter, signed by Jeanette Scott, board chair, and Jay Yule, superintendent of schools, states that while schools will be open under the supervision of school district staff, students will not be receiving instruction or appropriate supervision.

As well, because of the strike action, elementary parent-teacher conferences scheduled for March 7 have been cancelled. Extra-curricular activities planned for the week of March 5 have also been cancelled.

“It is the sincere hope of the Board of Education that this dispute will be concluded quickly and that normal school operations will resume as quickly as possible,” the letter states.

The school district will be posting updates on its website.

Since job action began in September, teachers have not been writing report cards, supervising students outside of instructional hours, administering provincial tests, attending staff meetings or performing administrative duties.

The provincial government tabled back-to-work legislation that would prevent the teachers from walking out, but it could be more than a week before the bill is passed in the legislature. Bill 22 forces a six-month cooling-off period in the dispute.

Labour Relations Board ruled earlier this week that teachers could stage a walkout for three days, if they gave parents two days’ notice. After that, teachers can withdraw services one day a week. BCTF has not said what it plans to do after the three-day strike next week.

Education Minister George Abbott said he was disappointed by the strike, but the government would not push the bill through before Monday.