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Thousands rally to support teachers
CH News
Monday, October 17, 2005
Thousands rally in Victoria to support B.C. teachers.
VICTORIA (CP) — Striking B.C. teachers and the Liberal government stared each other down Monday, with neither appearing willing to yield ground in a dispute that has kept 600,000 children out of school for more than a week.
A showdown between the government and organized labour grew more likely as up to 10,000 protesters gathered at the B.C. legislature to support the teachers.
Premier Gordon Campbell said the government is prepared to negotiate with the 38,000-member B.C. Teachers Federation, but not when its members are walking an illegal picket line.
Teachers union president Jinny Sims said she and her union will not be broken by the government and what she called unjust laws.
“Mr. Campbell, stop threatening us,” she told the cheering crowd on the legislature lawn. “Stop trying to divide us. It will not work. We will not be broken.”
Campbell said the government is ready to talk class sizes, class composition and wages if the union drops its picket lines.
“We hear that they’ve got concerns,” he said. “We’re concerned about class composition. We’re concerned about class size. We want to solve this problem.”
Campbell said government officials in the Ministry of Labour have been talking with officials in the B.C. Federation of Labour about the dispute, but nothing has been able to start talks.
The government won’t open the door on negotiations until the teachers return to work, but others were suggesting it’s up to Campbell to bend.
“When you put 15,000 or 20,000 people on the (legislature) lawn on a rainy day, it gives it more the feeling of legitimate protest than civil disobedience,” he said.
The government must consider that its attempts to force the teachers to end their walkout have only inflamed the situation, said Zubyk, who has worked for B.C.’s federal Liberals and provincial New Democrats.
“Teachers have been out one day in the 10 years leading up to today and now they’re on Day 6,” he said. “At some point the tough talk’s got to end and they have to find a face-saving way to start talking.”
Teachers went on strike Oct. 7 after the government imposed a contract on them, refusing to obey a Labour Relations Board ruling that their walkout was illegal.
A judge found them in contempt of court and when the teachers stayed off the job she froze their strike pay.
A special prosecutor has been appointed by the Criminal Justice Branch to consider whether to pursue criminal contempt charges against the B.C. Teachers Federation.
Special prosecutor Leonard Doust told Justice Brenda Brown on Monday in Vancouver that he had reviewed the court’s earlier rulings, was monitoring the issue and had decided the strike was “perilously close” to criminal contempt.
But Doust also told B.C. Supreme Court that he would proceed cautiously and would wait for further direction from the court before proceeding further.
The judge said the possibility of criminal court proceedings “has been on my mind.”
She suggested that there could be more discussion of that when lawyers for both sides return to court Tuesday to discuss the judge’s ruling of last week.
The associate dean of teacher education at the University of Victoria said it’s up to the government to take actions that get the two sides back to the negotiating table.
“The government passed the legislation that put them in this place,” said David Blades. “So it might be useful if the government were to say, `I tell you what, let’s get back to the table.”’
The protest at the legislature appeared to be a cross-section of British Columbia society.
Longshoremen wearing union placards stood beside mothers and their children. Young people traded high-fives with teachers.
“I’m just sticking up for our rights,” said Bruce Howe, a unionized forest worker who travelled from nearby Ladysmith to attend the protest.
A teacher at the rally said the number of people at the protest should send a message to the government about whose side the public supports.
“The people have spoken pretty clearly in the polls that they support the teachers and they need to bargain with us fairly,” said the teacher who didn’t want to identify herself.
The crowd filled the legislature lawn and packed the side causeway leading to the building.
Most people carried placards supporting the teachers.
Some of the home-made placards contained messages relaying individual feelings about the strike.
One placard said An Exorcist is Needed in Victoria.
Transit service in at least two Vancouver Island cities was halted as pickets appeared before dawn at bus yards in Greater Victoria and Nanaimo, preventing drivers from reporting to work.
Sims has said from the start of the job action that she is willing to go to jail for her members.
Jim Sinclair, B.C. Federation of Labour president, said a second day of protest was scheduled for Wednesday. He would not say where in British Columbia the protest would occur.
© CH Vancouver Island 2005
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