Global BC:
Teacher rallies planned across BC
Rallies were scheduled in 16 communities across B.C. Tuesday to support striking teachers.
Vancouver Sun:
Teachers’ strike impasse; Who’s going to blink
Students across B.C. will not be in class today and could remain out of school for the foreseeable future as the union representing striking public school teachers continues to lock horns with the province in an increasingly bitter labour dispute.
The Globe & Mail:
BC teachers stay out despite court order
British Columbia public school teachers remained off the job Tuesday despite a weekend court ruling that found the striking workers in contempt for not abiding by an order to go back to work.
BC minister rebukes teachers over strike
Labour Minister Mike de Jong talked tough and preached morality to striking teachers yesterday, saying they’ve got some explaining to do to students about why they’re defying the law.
MAIR: UNTANGLE LIBS AND BCTF; Change a losing game. Try compulsive arbitration.
Vancouver Sun
Teachers’ strike impasse
Who is going to blink?
Darah Hansen
Vancouver Sun
October 11, 2005
Students across B.C. will not be in class today and could remain out of school for the foreseeable future as the union representing striking public school teachers continues to lock horns with the province in an increasingly bitter labour dispute.
Labour Minister Mike de Jong took a hard line Monday, saying he will not meet with members of the teachers’ union while its members remain off the job, in contravention of a ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court Sunday that found striking teachers in contempt of a Labour Relations Board order.
“The next step is for the union to rethink its position, stop breaking the law and go back to work,” de Jong said in a telephone conference with media representatives.
De Jong said the provincial government has done what it can to bring a resolution to the current labour dispute with teachers, from legislating a contract to end stalemated negotiations, hiring a mediator to come up with a workable bargaining structure for future teacher-government talks, and creating an education forum where issues such as class size and composition can be discussed.
There are no new plans to offer any solutions to end the dispute, de Jong said, adding the matter is now between the teachers and the courts.
“It’s not really about the government any more. It’s about the law,” de Jong said. “There has been an [LRB] order made, there’s been a contempt order made. And so this really does become, for the union and for the union’s membership, about obeying or continuing to disregard the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
“I’ve said this in the past: It’s a hell of an example for teachers to be presenting for students or our children. Madam Justice [Brenda Brown] herself said [in Sunday’s ruling that] in a society built around the principle of the rule of law, you don’t get to pick and choose, because if that’s how we’re going to run this thing, then we are one step away from anarchy,” de Jong said.
In response, Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, called de Jong’s statements “perplexing.”
“As late as yesterday afternoon, I had a cordial conversation with him and we once again invited him to a table and we are still waiting for a response. And again, this government has decided to respond through a press conference,” Sims said.
But de Jong told reporters Monday the telephone conversation did nothing but allow both sides to reiterate their opposing positions.
Contrary to the minister’s statement, Sims said, teachers feel it is the government’s responsibility to try to settle the dispute.
“Our protest is against the government,” Sims said. “They are the ones who set the mandate for [the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association], they are the ones who stripped our contract in 2002. They are the ones who took away our bargaining rights. They are the ones who imposed the essential services legislation. And they are the ones who have now introduced Bill 12, imposing through the legislation an agreement that further attacks our rights as working people and does nothing to address our students’ learning conditions. And now they are pretending they have no responsibility.
“Our dispute right now, the reason our teachers are out, is to protest an unjust law. It’s a political protest against the action of this government,” she said.
Because of these reasons, Sims said, it’s important the two sides sit down and hammer out some solutions.
Teachers have stated they will continue to defy Sunday’s B.C. Supreme Court order and continue to picket outside schools until the province agrees to sit down and negotiate a mutually agreeable contract that addresses their concerns over class size, class composition and wages.
Teachers and their employers, the BCPSEA, are scheduled to meet today as the Labour Relations Board hears an appeal of an Oct. 6 order that declared the teachers’ strike to be illegal under essential services legislation.
The only other meetings scheduled between the disputing parties is on Thursday when a B.C. Supreme Court judge will rule on the level of penalties to be levied against the union following the contempt ruling Sunday. The union is expected to be hit with stiff fines for every day its members continue to defy the law.
According to figures provided by the BCPSEA, teachers are currently earning $50 a day while walking the picket line, costing the union approximately $2 million a day in strike pay.
Various labour rallies in support of the teachers are planned to take place later today across the province. In Vancouver, the rally will be held at 5:30 p.m. at Canada Place. In Victoria, a rally is scheduled at 5 p.m. at the Greater Victoria school board office.
dahansen@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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B.C. teachers stay out despite court order
By TERRY WEBER
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Posted at 1:52 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update
British Columbia public school teachers remained off the job Tuesday despite a weekend court ruling that found the striking workers in contempt for not abiding by an order to go back to work.
Classes have been cancelled in British Columbia since Friday, when teachers walked out to protest against legislation that would have forced them to accept a two-year contract that they say offers no pay increase and few improvements in working conditions.
The province’s 42,000 teachers have said they will stay off the job until their concerns are addressed. The B.C. Teachers Federation is expected to go back before the provincial labour board, asking it to reconsider an order labelling the job action an illegal strike.
That decision was upheld in a weekend B.C. Supreme Court decision, which found the union and its members were in contempt of court for not returning to work.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nancy Brown, who delivered the contempt order, is to rule Thursday on what penalties the union will face for defying the decision. Last year, the B.C. Hospital Employees’ Union was fined $150,000 a day after being found in contempt when members picketed hospitals in the province.
The union has been told to produce its financial statements at the hearing.
B.C. Labour Minister Mike de Jong, meanwhile, called on striking teachers to abide by the order and said the province will not negotiate with the union as long as it continues to defy the ruling.
“There has been an order made,” he said. “There has been a contempt order made.
“So this really does become, for the union and for the union’s membership, a question of obeying or continuing to disregard the Supreme Court of British Columbia.”
B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims, however, blamed the standoff on the province.
“This is the government that has created this crisis and has forced the teachers of the province to take part in civil disobedience against an unjust law and now they don’t just get to sit on the sidelines and watch,” Ms. Sims said.
“This is not the time to make those kind of grandiose statements. This is the time to get to a table and to find solutions.”
Public school teachers in British Columbia have been without a contract since June, 2004.
The government says other public-sector workers have accepted contracts with no wage increases.
The teachers have argued that, while they want a fair wage increase, their big issue is getting negotiations on class size back into their collective agreement.
Teachers lost the ability to negotiate class size and composition in 2002 when the government imposed its last settlement.
In some communities, students were preparing to join their teachers on the picket lines.
In Tappen, a group of Carlin Elementary School students were making signs and preparing to take apples to their teachers.
“They hope that if kids at other schools do the same thing for their teachers, it will send a message to the government that education is important,” Mae Wandinger, president of the school’s parent council, said in an email.
With reports from Canadian Press
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Globe and Mail
B.C. minister rebukes teachers over strike
By PETTI FONG
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Page A5
VANCOUVER — Labour Minister Mike de Jong talked tough and preached morality to striking teachers yesterday, saying they’ve got some explaining to do to students about why they’re defying the law.
Mr. de Jong said the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and individual members will face fines for continuing to ignore a Labour Relations Board and Supreme Court ruling that found the teachers’ job action is illegal.
The Liberals passed legislation late last week that imposed a contract on the province’s 42,000 teachers and the minister said the government expects the teachers to be back at work.
If teachers don’t return, Mr. de Jong said, the system is one step away from anarchy.
“It’s a hell of an example of teachers to be presenting for students,” he said. “The union and individual members should think long and hard, in my view, of the example they’re setting and the extent right now to which they’re being viewed.”
Recent polls show the teachers have a majority of support from respondents in their job action.
Members have been without a contract since June of 2004. The government says other public-sector workers have accepted contracts with no wage increases, and teachers will not be getting anything higher.
Teachers, meanwhile, say they want a fair and reasonable wage increase, but their higher priority is getting negotiations on class size back into the collective agreement.
In 2002, when the government imposed its last settlement, it removed teachers’ ability to negotiate class size and composition.
Mr. de Jong said students, who will be out for the foreseeable future because both sides are unwilling to back down from their entrenched positions, will be asking teachers what laws should be obeyed once school resumes.
The union has maintained that teachers abide by and respect the law, but some laws are so odious, they must be defied.
Teachers’ federation president Jinny Sims said yesterday that teachers have the utmost respect for law and the courts, but her members are adamant they won’t return to work until there is a settlement.
“We feel badly that parents are inconvenienced,” Ms. Sims said. “We want to meet with government and we are willing to meet any time, 24/7.”
In a rare Sunday hearing, Madam Justice Brenda Brown of the B.C. Supreme Court found teachers were in contempt when they set up picket lines Friday.
Teachers began limited job action and stopped playground supervision after the BCTF had a strike vote came back 88-per-cent in favour.
Angered by the government’s decision to impose a contract, teachers went back to the voting stations. By an even higher percentage, slightly more than 90 per cent, teachers voted to ignore the government legislation, which, despite an all-night filibuster by the New Democratic Party, passed last week.
After picket lines were set up, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, the government bargaining arm and representative of the province’s school boards, made the application to the court late Friday to find the teachers in contempt after a Labour Relations Board ruling was made in its favour.
The teachers are appealing the board ruling.
In the meantime, the teachers’ federation has been given a slight reprieve. Although Judge Brown found teachers were in contempt, a hearing won’t be held until Thursday to determine what penalties teachers face for remaining off the job.
Lawyers for the school employers opposed that delay because it makes it unlikely school will resume before then.
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