In his article for MRZine (BC teachers go back to work—Who won the battle?), BCTF activist Bob Rosen says that the strike resulted in a “big victory for teachers.”
After seven legislated agreements in the public sector by the Campbell government, the BCTF’s courage in being willing to take on an illegal strike forced the government to appoint a mediator and to accept a mediated settlement, which broke the pattern of passive acceptance of unilateral imposed contracts. The enormous public support for teachers throughout the illegal strike was itself a very important achievement. It signaled that the public agreed that there are real problems in the schools and teachers’ concerns to have a say in how to improve learning and working conditions is valid. It strengthens the hand of the BCTF enormously in future negotiations and in the roundtable discussions, which have already begun.
I agree that these are all important outcomes from the strike, but the fact remains that teachers did not get the three main items they were fighting for [as the Surrey Teachers Association pointed out in their statement “Nine Reasons to Vote ‘No'”, which by the way, seems to have disappeared from their web site—read on for the full text of the STA’s “no recommendation.”] The goals being: (1) full, free collective bargaining for teachers; (2) a return collective agreement language on working and learning conditions; (3) a fair salary increase.
Rosen also indicates that the CUPE and the BCTF are ready to challenge Jim Sinclair’s leadership of the BC Federation of Labour after he double-crossed the teachers (and CUPE) by pulling the BCFL out of the regional walkouts in what turned out to be the last days of the strike (and while public support for the teachers was growing); butting in to announce that the teachers would vote on Ready’s recommendations before he (or anyone else) had actually seen them; then not showing up for the big rallies in Vancouver and Surrey the last day of the strike.
Eugene Plawiuk’s take on the strike is worth a read. In B.C. Teachers Grab Victory from the Jaws of Defeat he argues
“The teachers had no choice but to compromise, given the weight of the State and its Courts against them…this is a lesson for the whole labour movement, that workers rights are not given by contracts or the State, they are taken when we walk out and take the streets or when we seize our work places and put them under direct worker and community control. Such situations not only challenge the government but the very nature of capitalism.…That they mobilized mass picketing is the least they could do, given the fact that the workers in B.C. have faced over four years of neo-liberal attacks by the Campbell neo-liberal Government. But they failed again, as they did with the nurses strike last summer, to go all the way to a General Strike. At the eleventh hour they once again capitulated to the State.…ONCE AGAIN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN CANADA HAS SHOWN THAT IT IS THE HAND MAIDEN OF CAPITALISM AND NOT A WORKERS MOVEMENT.”
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Most of the public-sector contracts expire in March of 2006 and the maneuvering has already started. George Heyman, head of the BC Government and Service Employee’s union says the teachers have inspired public sector unions and as a result there will be no more imposed contracts. CBC reports that “Heyman says unions are in no rush to break the law. But he says if the government tries again to impose a contract on any union, it can expect labour to protest.”
According to Finance Minister Carole Taylor, the government is promising money for public workers next year (she won’t say how much) and in the wake of the teachers’ strike says it is looking to improve the bargaining process with public-sector workers. Finance Minister Carole Taylor says that
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From The Tyee:
TEACHERS’ STRIKE NEWS AND VIEWS: THE WRIGHT WAY TO DEAL WITH TEACHERS’ ANGER—Premier ignored report assigned by his own minister. By David Schreck
SCHOOL STALEMATE: HOW WE GOT HERE—Nearly two decades of wrangling in the Legislature. By Will McMartin and
David Beers
IMAGES FROM ‘A DAY OF ACTION’—Teachers and supporters rally in front of the legislature. Photos by Nick
Westover
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Meanwhile in Quebec, talks have broken down between the Charest government and teachers. The 80,000 teachers iin Quebec have been without a contract for two years and Francoise Stake, head of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers asked after the talks broke down, “Aside from striking, what other action is there?”
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The Terrace Standard ran a story today (Oct 26) on the CUPE walkout in Northern BC on October 18, which reports that while Northwest Community College wasn’ picketed, “a number of instructors there who teach university credit and other programs and who belong to CUPE didn’t show up for work” and joined striking CUPE workers at locations around the city.
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Video of the Victory march and rally (Oct 17), which shut down the city, is available on the web at WorkingTV.com.
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The Ready recommendations can be found here.Vince Ready’s Recommendations: Nine Reasons to Vote “No”
Surrey Teachers’ Association
The STA Executive is recommending to the membership that we vote “no.” There are two questions that you need to ask yourself. Did we achieve our three goals?
The goals being: ï Full, free collective bargaining for teachers ï A return of our stripped collective agreement language on working and learning conditions ï A fair salary increase.
None of these goals have been achieved. The next question is ìIf we stay out longer will we get anything better?î We canít gaze into the future. We donít know. Will the parents and community still be with us given the bombardment from CanWest and Global, that these are recommendations that
teachers should accept. We also have been advised that the BCTF may face criminal contempt charges on Monday, if teachers are not back at work. Each member should read the recommendations from Ready. They are available on our website at www.surreyteachers.org Each of you will make your own decision. Whatever you decide will be respected.
Please find below nine reasons to vote “No.”
1. The recommendations contain no guarantees for class size and composition limits. The one-time $20 million dollar infusion will mean 330 teachers added province wide.
2. The proposed changes to the School Act do not include any guarantees for actual limits. Nothing prevents Campbell from amending the School Act with a limit of 40.
3. Parent support was predicated on our fight for learning conditions. The public may perceive us to be ditching class-size and composition in exchange for money.
4. The $40 million for harmonization represents only an average of a 2% increase for teachers province wide. This is understood to only affect locals below the average income. We need an increase for all members. Teachers in locals above the provincial average will not receive an increase. Teachers across the province have been out for 2 weeks. We all need an increase. An injury to one is an injury to all!
5. The total money included in the recommendations ($105.2 million) is close to what we have lost in salary during job action. In Surrey, we have given up $10 million in salary over the last 2 weeks. Thus, even the small monetary gains are simply reassigning our own salaries within the school system.
6. Some of the recommendations are one time only. This includes the extra $20 million for learning conditions and the $40 million for Long Term Disability (Salary Indemnity Plan). The greatest costs of our Salary Indemnity Plan are the short term benefit costs. Teachers will continue to fund the total costs of the short term (maximum of 120 days) plan.
7. The recommendations include no improvement to our bargaining rights. Bargaining rights were one of our three principle goals in this political protest. Bill 12 stands and we have imposed working conditions, not a negotiated settlement. The Essential Services legislation stands.
8. The Learning Round Table is not a decision making body, and the increase in teacher representatives still leaves us in a small minority. We cannot expect this body to address
learning conditions meaningfully. Ready notes in his recommendations that the Round Table does not have a mandate to deal with collective agreement issues. The BCTF has been a member of EAC(Education Advisory Committee) for 15 years. This group is comprised of every education
stakeholder group, including government. The BCTF has hammered away on class size, class composition, non-enrolling specialists for years to no avail. The Round Table is nothing new!
9. Non-enrolling ratios are not addressed at all. This was one of our primary bargaining objectives: ratios to ensure adequate teacher-librarians, counselors, learning support teachers, speech and language pathologists and integration support teachers.
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