Rallies and Demonstrations at Three Vancouver Schools Today, Thursday, October 20.
Parents Care; Teachers Care; Support our Teachers on the Line!

Source:PRDTU

Kitsilano Parents to Rally at 10:00 am (see details in earlier entry)

Tyee Elementary Parents to Rally in Support of Teachers at 12:00 noon.
(Vancouver) Parents at Tyee Elementary School will be holding a rally to support striking teachers on Thursday, October 20.

Tyee parents are inviting others to join them at Tyee Elementary to show support and appreciation for teachers around the province – bring signs and noise makers.

Thursday October 20; 12:00 – 1:00pm
Tyee Elementary, 3525 Dumfries (19th and Knight)
(For more information please contact Helesia Luke at 778.858.0553)

Queen Victoria Elementary Parents to Rally at 2:30 pm, Thursday, October 20, 2:30 p.m.

Rally at the cul de sac on 4th, one block east of Commercial
If you are driving, please park on Victoria near 4th

Protest Songs and BBQ

The hows and whys of supporting the teachers
Speaker: Ian Weniger, teacher and BCTF member

Thursday, October 20th 7:30 p.m.
2017 West 5th Avenue, Kits (Maple House Activity Room)

contact info–BackBCTeachers@union.org.za

Even while negotiations are taking place, the premier’s office still sends out a blame the teachers message. The question is, is trust possible?
Charles

Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:34:34 -0700
From: “OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX”
Subject: RE: In Support of Teachers
To: “‘cmenzies@interchange.ubc.ca'”

Thank you for your email regarding the teachers’ dispute. . . . >

Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:34:34 -0700
From: “OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX”
Subject: RE: In Support of Teachers
To: “‘cmenzies@interchange.ubc.ca'”

Thank you for your email regarding the teachers’ dispute.

Last month, a fact-finder appointed to identify issues hindering negotiations determined that no reasonable possibility of a negotiated settlement exists. After eighteen months at the table and thirty-five
meetings, the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) did not agree on a single item. In light of this, our government introduced the Teachers’ Collective Agreement Act. This Act extends teachers’ existing contract until June 30, 2006, at which time teachers will be able to seek a wage increase.

This will also give our government the opportunity to review teacher bargaining in British Columbia. The current bargaining model between the BCTF and BCPSEA has never resulted in a negotiated contract. Clearly, this is a dysfunctional structure in serious need of repair. We have appointed veteran mediator Vince Ready to lead an Industrial Inquiry Commission to recommend a new process for reaching collective agreements with teachers before bargaining resumes. The Wright Report, released in December 2004, provides a starting point for careful examination of this issue.

Pursuant to the Supreme Court of British Columbia’s ruling, we are imploring teachers to cease their illegal strike and return to their classrooms. We are willing to meet with union representatives to find solutions; however, we cannot do so as long as teachers remain in contempt of court. We are also urging the BCTF to accept our invitation to the Learning Roundtable, where all participants will have an opportunity to discuss class size, class composition, and other crucial issues related to learning conditions.

Our government supports teachers and remains unequivocally committed to providing students with the best possible public education. We have added $150 million this year to the education budget, which increases total education funding to more than $5 billion for the first time in our province’s history. We are interested in hearing teachers’ ideas on how to further improve our education system, and to this end, we are establishing a Teachers’ Congress to allow teachers to communicate directly with the provincial government.

Again, thank you for sharing your views with me on this important issue. Please visit www.mediaroom.gov.bc.ca/teacher_negotiations for the latest information.

The BC Teachers Federation is confirming that mediator Vince Ready is facilitating dialogue and is meeting with union leaders in a bid to resolve the teachers strike.

It’s now more important than ever to keep up the pressure and to maintaining levels of support activities for our teachers. If real gains are to be made for public education; if the rights of working people to bargain freely and fairly are to be upheld; then teachers and their supporters need to keep up the pressure.

See CBC coverage of this development.

Crown Prosecutors Declare a Conflict of Interest and Refuse to Prosecute Teachers
By JEFF HODSON
Metro Vancouver, October 18, 2005

If criminal charges are brought against teachers, Crown counsel will be unable to prosecute, says the head of the professional organization that represents B.C.’s 400 prosecutors. The Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of the Attorney General yesterday appointed Vancouver lawyer Leonard Doust as an independent special prosecutor. Part of Doust’s mandate will be to determine whether to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against illegally striking teachers. But, said Michael Van Klaveren, president of the B.C. Crown Counsel Association, “It is our position, right now, that prosecutors are in a conflict of interest position when it comes to prosecuting any teachers.”

Clipped from Comox Valley Teachers

Polls show teachers union winning the PR battle in its contract war with the BC Liberals.[From]: Business in Vancouver October 18-24, 2005; issue 834

Public Opinion

Steve Mossop

Polls show teachers union winning the PR battle in its contract war with the BC Liberals

Round 10 in the labour battle royal pitting the BC Teachers Federation against the provincial government and the BCTF appears to be getting the upper hand in the public relations arena.

An Ipsos Reid poll of 800 B.C. residents completed on October 10 shows the majority of B.C. residents, especially parents, side with the teachers. Currently, the majority of B.C. adults (56 per cent) supports the teachers and the BCTF in this dispute (nearly double the 33 per cent that support the B.C. Public School Employer’s Association) and 54 per cent disagree with the provincial government’s decision to legislate an end to the contract dispute. Support levels are even higher among parents with at least one child in the K-12 school system, indicating that those with most at stake in the education system are the strongest supporters of the teachers.

Another research company, the Mustel Group, released a poll (albeit with a much smaller sample size of 300) showing a slightly smaller number (53 per cent) support the teachers, but that 52 per cent opposed the B.C. teachers’ plan to strike (45 per cent supported the idea). A further 81 per cent agreed that class size has an impact on education quality.

Historically, the provincial government could always count on the support of the public to take a hard stance toward the teachers. The BCTF’s militancy, its close ties to the NDP and organized labour and parents’ belief that education is an essential service always meant that contract settlements could be imposed with little political outcry – especially in B.C.’s recessionary ’90s.

This time around, however, it’s different.

Why?

Well, for starters, the B.C. government is sitting on a large surplus and the provincial economy is booming. In addition, the last estimate for this fiscal year puts the surplus as high as $1.3 billion, GDP has risen 3.6 per cent this year, the unemployment rate is at its lowest rate in decades and the housing boom has made everyone feel richer.

Another Ipsos Reid poll puts consumer confidence in the provincial economy at record heights (82 per cent describe the overall state of the provincial economy as “good” or “very good”).

Little surprise then that the poll shows 46 per cent of the adults surveyed feel that teachers are underpaid, compared with six per cent who said they’re overpaid. Even on the right to strike issue, the teachers appear to have support where little previously existed.

The government’s hard-line approach of a zero per cent wage increase, refusal to relent on the class-size issue and imposition of back-to-work legislation has therefore been made harder to swallow.

The BCTF has also done a relatively good PR job of comparing modest teacher salaries against escalating MLA salaries, and BCTF president Jinny Sims, with a softer, more friendly approach than her predecessors, has been able to cultivate increased support. The BC Liberals, on the other hand, have been relatively silent in this dispute.

Unfortunately for parents, students and teachers, it’s a no-win debate with both sides entrenched in unmovable positions.

This time, however, the BC Liberals may have gone too far in battling the BCTF, paying the price in the court of public opinion with an erosion of support for their government.

Steve Mossop is the Managing Director Of Ipsos-Reid, Market Research Canada West. He can be reached at steve.mossop@ipsos-reid.com.