It’s hard to hold out much hope that the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the provincial government will be able to come to agreement this summer.
The June 30 signing deadline for teachers to get extra cash came and went.
As quickly as the teachers union called for a new round of bargaining last week, it threatened to shut down summer school by having its members picket locations.
The government does not seem willing to budge from what it calls “the affordability zone,” preferring, presumably, to let teachers stay out on strike which saves millions in salaries.
At this point, both sides of the dispute are so firmly entrenched in their positions that it is unlikely that a solution will ever be found.
If nothing is resolved before summer gets underway, the dispute will just be pushed to the back-burner to be revisited as September approaches.
When the start of the school year looks to be in jeopardy, the teachers will be legislated back to work again solving nothing and only further illustrating that what should be a fairly straight-forward labour negotiation is actually the front lines of a bitter ideological struggle between the BC Liberals and the BCTF.
On salaries, both sides are about one per cent apart, but it is the other issues around class size and composition which seem to be causing the most friction.
In its latest offer the BCTF is asking for the establishment of a new Workload Fund, which would cost $225-million annually to be used for hiring new teachers. They also want a retroactive grievances fund, to tune of $225-million over the course of the five years. If the fund was provided, the union would agree to withdraw its grievances relating to the teachers’ Supreme Court case.
The government has appealed the BC Supreme Court decision to have contract language about class size and composition restored to the collective agreement and are pushing for no changes to current class-size limits.
For both sides, progress will only be made, when the union and government can agree to what the numbers really are. Currently what one side says is refuted by the other. Where is the middle ground for resolution?
