CBC
Mediator seen as “ray of hope” in BC teacher strike
A veteran mediator has been appointed in the British Columbia teachers’ strike, raising hopes the two sides could soon return to the table and bring 38,000 teachers back to the classroom.
CTV
Mediator named in teachers’ dispute; Polls show strong public support for teachers
Striking B.C. public school teachers are ahead in the battle for public support in their ongoing contract dispute with their employer and the provincial government, according to a new B.C. Ipsos Reid poll. In the poll conducted over the past weekend, 57 per cent of British Columbians say they tend to side more with teachers and their union in this dispute.
The Globe and Mail
Mediator steps into teachers’ dispute
As trade unionists prepared to walk off the job throughout the East and West Kootenays today in support of striking teachers, there is the first glimmer of hope in the bitter, escalating conflict since it began 12 days ago.
Editorial: BC teachers should obey the law
It was bad enough when public-school teachers in British Columbia thumbed their noses at the law and continued an illegal strike. Now the Canadian Union of Public Employees and other unionists in both the public and private sector have joined the teachers in their defiance. The protests shut transit and other government services in Victoria on Monday and moved into northern B.C. communities yesterday. The troubling escalation will only further embolden the teachers while hardening the government’s attitude.
The Vancouver Sun:
Teachers see “ray of hope”; Appointment of Vincent Ready alone not enough to end strike, BCTF president says
Tensions between striking teachers and their employers eased slightly Tuesday when it was announced Vince Ready would play a role in negotiations, but the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said that step alone is not enough to end the strike.
Mass walkout expected in the Kootenays; BC Labor Fed leaders says job could escalate—and include the Lower Mainland
Thousands of union members are expected to walk off the job in the East and West Kootenays today, potentially shutting down transit and government offices, as labour leaders continue to support the teachers in their dispute with the B.C. Liberals.
Indymedia
General strike begins in BC
In a matter of days, all of the contradictions that have been building over the last four years in British Columbia have come to the fore. Gordon Campbell’s mis-named Liberals have spent their time in power attacking the working class – slashing social programs, closing schools and hospitals, ripping up collective agreements and sending tuition sky-rocketing. This has been met with several waves of unrest. The workers of this province have fought back with demonstrations, strikes and occupations. The movement has passed through many different stages; the working class has learned from bitter experience. Now this battle is reaching new heights. The province stands on the brink of an all-out general strike.The Globe and Mail
Mediator steps into teachers’ dispute
Exploratory talks with both sides begin as trade unionists plan series of walkouts
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Page S1
As trade unionists prepared to walk off the job throughout the East and West Kootenays today in support of striking teachers, there is the first glimmer of hope in the bitter, escalating conflict since it began 12 days ago.
Veteran mediator Vince Ready began meeting yesterday with government and union representatives to search for ways to resolve the illegal strike by 38,000 public-school teachers, already the longest provincewide school shutdown in B.C. history.
Although the precise nature of Mr. Ready’s role was not immediately clear, the involvement of someone with a reputation for settling difficult disputes may indicate a shift in the previous, dug-in positions of each side.
His exploratory talks followed another surprising decision earlier in the day by B.C. Supreme Court judge Madam Justice Brenda Brown.
Despite the growing confrontation between the labour movement and the Liberal government, the judge delayed until Friday her ruling on what punishment the B.C. Teachers’ Federation should receive for ignoring court orders to return to work.
British Columbia trade unions planned to step up that confrontation today in the B.C. Interior, closing pulp mills, sawmills and public services throughout the Kootenays.
Rallies in support of the teachers’ strike were to be held in the region’s major cities of Cranbrook, Trail and Nelson.
B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair promised more union shutdowns in other parts of the province, including Vancouver, until the government agrees to sit down and try to resolve the teachers’ eight-day illegal walkout.
“We haven’t done this for many, many years,” Mr. Sinclair said yesterday as he announced the Kootenay protests. “Certainly not over a period of time. The last time was just one day. What you are seeing right now is a major event in the history of this province.”
Today’s labour walkouts follow Monday’s one-day disruption of many public services on Vancouver Island, capped by a huge, boisterous rally with thousands of striking teachers and supporters on the lawns of the legislature in Victoria.
In court, observers were taken aback by Judge Brown’s decision to withhold a ruling on sanctions against the teachers until Friday.
School board lawyer Naz Mitha had called on Judge Brown to levy “a very substantial financial penalty” on the BCTF, noting that the teachers had spurned the court by continuing their strike “with no end in sight.”
“The time has come to make clear to the BCTF and the public at large that there are serious consequences [to breaching orders of the court],” Mr. Mitha declared.
“The court needs to send an unequivocal message” that previous court rulings, which did not involve fines, “are not a licence to continue the contempt.”
Judge Brown, however, put off her decision for another three days, without explanation.
She caught all sides off guard earlier in the dispute with an unprecedented order freezing the union’s strike fund and other assets rather than handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
Ken Thornicroft, a labour relations and law professor at the University of Victoria, said Judge Brown’s apparent reluctance to punish the striking union severely may be a signal to the parties to settle the strike on their own.
“I think the judge is really hesitant to be a player in this dispute. It’s not really the court’s fight,” Mr. Thornicroft said. “The courts are the enforcement mechanism, and she may be saying: ‘Solve this yourselves and get it out of my hands.’ ”
He said the government should make a concrete proposal to the teachers, perhaps aimed at the future rather than revisiting the two-year contract imposed on the teachers that provoked their illegal strike.
“At some point, the teachers are going to come back. It’s just a matter of when, and there’s no utility in having them come back as a crushed entity.”
Until now, the government has refused to talk to the teachers until they return to work, while the teachers are refusing to return to work without some form of negotiated settlement.
Labour Minister Mike de Jong insisted that Mr. Ready’s involvement does not mean the government has changed its position.
Asked whether the government is negotiating through Mr. Ready, Mr. de Jong said, simply, “No.”
Mr. Ready was appointed before the teachers began their strike to recommend a new system of bargaining for future contract talks.
BCTF president Jinny Sims seemed pleased by the turn of events.
“Both parties are looking to him [Mr. Ready] as a facilitator, as a way of getting to a table. It’s a good sign.”
© Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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The Globe and Mail
The B.C. teachers should obey the law
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Page A20
It was bad enough when public-school teachers in British Columbia thumbed their noses at the law and continued an illegal strike. Now the Canadian Union of Public Employees and other unionists in both the public and private sector have joined the teachers in their defiance. The protests shut transit and other government services in Victoria on Monday and moved into northern B.C. communities yesterday. The troubling escalation will only further embolden the teachers while hardening the government’s attitude.
The province’s labour movement has a long history of being confrontational, and has compiled a lengthy list of grievances stemming from actions taken by Premier Gordon Campbell’s Liberals since they first swept to power in 2001. Faced with cleaning up a fiscal mess, the Liberals launched a deeply unpopular austerity program. Government jobs have been slashed and contracts have been imposed on doctors, nurses and other public-service workers.
Among other moves fiercely opposed by the unions, the Liberals passed legislation declaring education an essential service, which effectively blocked the teachers from striking. Then the government imposed a two-year contract calling for a wage freeze and removing the teachers’ right to negotiate class-size limits.
Teachers should have a say in their working conditions, which include class size. But it is ridiculous to enshrine their right to dictate to the government how it should spend its education dollars. On the wage front, the Liberals said they could not treat teachers any differently from other public-sector employees, who have had their salaries frozen under the austerity moves. This was tough but necessary medicine that helped British Columbia get back on a sounder economic footing. In their last contract in 2002, which was also imposed, the teachers got a raise of 7.5 per cent over three years. Now they will be on an equal footing with other government workers heading into the next bargaining year.
So far, the teachers are winning the public-relations battle, which shows the reservoir of respect the public retains for the hard-working people who educate their children. But they should have a close look at the latest poll. Although it pegs their support at 57 per cent, only 47 per cent agree with the strike action, a level that will drop sharply as the dispute drags on.
The teachers should go back to work before they face the threat of criminal charges and the much stiffer penalties that come with them. As for complaints about rights denied, the labour movement, teachers included, should confine its fight to the political arena, where it belongs, instead of flouting the law.
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Teachers see ‘ray of hope’
Appointment of Vince Ready alone is not enough to end strike, BCTF president says
Janet Steffenhagen and Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Tensions between striking teachers and their employers eased slightly Tuesday when it was announced Vince Ready would play a role in negotiations, but the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said that step alone is not enough to end the strike.
“This gives us a ray of hope,” union president Jinny Sims said in an interview. But she added the union needs guarantees that talks will result in action before she will ask her members to vote on whether they are ready to return to work.
“We need a solution to the outstanding issues,” she said. “We need to have our students’ learning conditions addressed and we need to ensure that we get to negotiate fair terms and conditions of employment.”
Labour experts said Ready’s involvement suggests the Liberal government has softened its approach, likely because public opinion polls continue to show strong support for the teachers even though their strike has been deemed illegal and their union has been found in contempt of court for refusing to return to work.
A poll released Monday, after a massive demonstration in support of teachers outside the B.C. legislature, suggested 57 per cent of British Columbians side with the teachers while 34 per cent back the government and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, the bargaining agent for B.C.’s 60 school boards.
“I think the government misread public support for the teachers,” said Ken Thornicroft, a labour relations professor at the University of Victoria. “I think they were thinking public sentiment would swing their way.”
Professor Mark Thompson of the University of B.C. agreed, saying a lot of people — including those in government — underestimated the resolve of teachers. “I think they underestimated how strong the teachers would be and how they would stand up to the court injunction,” he said in an interview.
The Liberal government, not wanting to look as if it had capitulated to an illegal strike, refused Tuesday to say whether it had specifically asked Ready to facilitate talks between teachers and their employers. (Ready’s involvement was announced first on the union’s website.)
Labour Minister Mike de Jong told reporters Ready was simply doing the job that had been announced previously — fixing the bargaining system to ensure a new contract could be reached when the current one expires in June. But he didn’t rule out the possibility that Ready might also facilitate talks.
De Jong did not describe Ready’s entry into the dispute as a breakthrough or a path to a quick solution.
“I think it’s going to be difficult for him to engage fully with the parties as long as there is illegal activity,” he said. “And it is certainly impossible for the government to engage directly with the BCTF as long as that illegal activity is taking place.”
The employers association also praised Ready’s appointment as a “positive step” but refused to speculate on when almost 600,000 students would return to school. The strike began Oct. 7.
“I don’t like to pre-judge the outcome,” said Hugh Finlayson, the association’s chief executive officer. “This is a tough situation. There’s no doubt that Vince is the best person at handling tough situations and we need to turn our attention to working with him to move the process along.”
Ready’s involvement was revealed shortly after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown made the surprise announcement that she would not rule until Friday on possible penalties to the union for civil contempt of court. Since she had already ordered the union back to work and the union hadn’t complied, she had been expected to make a quick decision.
Teachers on the picket lines Tuesday backed Sims’s position that Ready’s involvement wouldn’t necessarily bring an end to the walkout that began after the Liberals introduced legislation, known as Bill 12, to extend by two years the contract that expired June 2004. That extension meant no change in classroom conditions and no pay increase.
“We have to see the action behind it; we have to know it’s an authentic step,” Rachel Prior-Tsang, a teacher at King George secondary school in Vancouver, said of Ready’s involvement. “We are so patient and so accommodating – that’s our profession. But we’ve reached a limit here where we can no longer compromise.”
Added Janet Morningstar, a distance education counsellor: “I would need Bill 12 to be removed [before returning to work]. I would need them [the government] … to negotiate a contract in good faith.”
UBC’s Thompson said Ready is the most highly regarded mediator in the province, adding that if anyone can persuade the parties to reach a settlement, he’s the one who could do it. As a mediator or “facilitator,” Ready would encourage negotiations but couldn’t force the parties to accept a deal.
“I would assume a guy with Ready’s credentials isn’t going to get into this unless he has an indication that both sides are prepared to work with him,” Thompson said.
“I think we’ll now see a break in the situation. With Ready’s talents and his stamina, they [the parties] are going to be in a cyclone whether they know it or not. He’s a legend. He can go for 18 to 20 hours at a stretch for days on end. They’re going to get a ride and he’s going to tell them where they’ve done wrong.”
Asked if there is a reason for parents to be hopeful, Thompson replied: “Absolutely. This is what had to happen.”
Meanwhile, during question period in the legislature, the Liberals attempted to turn attention to the New Democrats, accusing the party of actively helping the teachers run strikes.
De Jong rose in the chamber with a copy of an e-mail sent by a teacher to other strikers in the Vancouver Island community of Courtenay. It was a document, accidentally e-mailed to Liberal MLA Stan Hagen, that set out picket-line duty and included the phrase, “anybody else that would like to come and help out in the NDP office would be very welcomed.”
Later, de Jong gave reporters a picture of the building the teachers work out of, which had a sign outside reading “New Democrats Constituency Office.”
“The NDP office in Courtenay . . . directly below the Comox District Teachers’ Association, has apparently become a beehive of activity,” said de Jong.
But NDP officials later explained they did not have an active office in the building, which is half-owned by the Commonwealth Society, a society with deep NDP connections. In fact, the MLA is Hagen.
Richard Walker, president of the Comox District Teachers’ Association , said teachers now use most of the top floor while the offices below him, occasionally used by New Democrats in the past, have not been used by the NDP of late. The sign outside is simply old, he said.
“There’s no NDP in the office,” he said. “They have a couple of empty spaces.”
jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com
mcernetig@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Mass walkout expected in Kootenays
B.C. Fed leader says job action could escalate — and include the Lower Mainland
Lori Culbert and Maurice Bridge
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Thousands of union members are expected to walk off the job in the East and West Kootenays today, potentially shutting down transit and government offices, as labour leaders continue to support the teachers in their dispute with the B.C. Liberals.
And the job action could keep on escalating this week — targeting other areas of the province — if the government doesn’t return to the bargaining table with teachers, who have been on an illegal strike for 13 days, B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair vowed Tuesday.
“Obviously, if it drags on then there are more actions,” Sinclair said, refusing to identify the next targeted jurisdictions. “We’re not going to advertise what we’re doing.”
When asked if the Lower Mainland could be next, Sinclair would only say that he’s hoping the government will negotiate with teachers so that further protests aren’t necessary.
“What you are seeing right now is a major event in British Columbian history. We haven’t done this for many, many, many years.”
Following the massive job action in Victoria Monday — where 12,000 teachers and their supporters protested outside the legislature, paralyzing buses and many services — Sinclair said labour leaders took a “breather” Tuesday while waiting to hear from the province.
But the phone didn’t ring by Tuesday morning. So, at noon, Sinclair was encouraging members of most private- and public-sector unions — except those who work in health care — to walk off the job today in the Kootenays, and to attend rallies in Cranbrook, Nelson and Trail.
“Similar to Victoria, we are asking working people [in the Kootenays] to join with parents, with students, with others to come together to send a message to the government,” said Sinclair, who spoke boisterously Tuesday, showing no indication he’ll back down from this fight.
Premier Gordon Campbell has said he is willing to negotiate with teachers, but not as long as they are breaking the law.
Campbell did not comment in the legislature Tuesday on the escalating labour dispute, but Labour Minster Mike de Jong said he is concerned about members of other unions walking off the job to support the teachers.
“I am concerned whenever people are in open defiance of the law and the courts,” de Jong said.
But whether the job action, or Tuesday’s appointment of veteran mediator Vince Ready, will get the two sides sitting together at the bargaining table again is still unclear.
The illegal strike by 38,000 teachers, which is keeping ore than 600,000 students out of classrooms, began Oct. 7 after the Liberals imposed a contract on the teachers when bargaining stalled.
Meanwhile in Prince George, the B.C. Fed did not organize a multiple-union walk-out Tuesday, where hundreds of members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees walked off the job in solidarity with teachers.
CUPE has about 4,000 members across the northern part of the province, half of them in Prince George.
Despite chilly morning temperatures which were slow to edge above freezing, about 750 CUPE members, teachers and a scattering of supporters from other unions gathered outside the downtown office of Education Minister Shirley Bond at 9 a.m. Tuesday to hear local labour leaders lambaste the government.
“It’s totally insane what’s happening in this province,” Leann Dawson, a CUPE rep and first vice president of the Prince George and District Labour Council, told the crowd.
“We have fought side by side with other unions and the entire labour movement in British Columbia for years and decades to achieve free collective bargaining in the public service, and we achieved that.
“Now Shirley and her friends are trying to rip it apart. How appalling is that?”
The crowd responded with a chant of, “Shame on Shirley.”
Bond’s office remained locked with the lights out during the demonstration, which went on until early afternoon.
Garbage collection, parking-ticket enforcement and operations at local pools and ice-rinks around the area came to a halt, and city hall operated on a shortened day, with supervisory staff working at the counters.
Prince George city manager George Paul termed the disruption “an inconvenience, but not a major issue.”
lculbert@png.canwest.com
With a file from Miro Cernetig
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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