Category Archives: Labor

We Support The Teachers!

Teach-In and Rally

Scarfe Building Lobby

University of British Columbia

Noon – 1:00pm

19 October 2005

Wednesday

Campbell flees BC

BC too hot to handle: Gordon Campbell flees to Toronto

TORONTO, Oct. 14 /CNW/ – Various reports indicate that British Columbia’s Premier, Liberal Gordon Campbell was in Toronto yesterday at Queen’s Park, accompanied by a heavy security detail.
It is ironic that the BC premier is in Ontario while his own province needs leadership most. British Columbia Teachers’ Federation are on strike protesting his unjust laws that are flouting international labour law to which Canada is a signatory.
With polls showing overwhelming support for the teachers, Premier Campbell is following the old adage “when the going gets tough, the premier gets going – right out of the province.”
It is indeed ironic that the premier has chosen to leave the province of BC when the students of his province need him the most.
“By refusing to negotiate with the BC teachers, Campbell is showing contempt for public education in the province,” says Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation President Rhonda Kimberley-Young. “We have seen this type of extreme anti-teacher, anti-public education attitude in Ontario’s recent past from the Harris/Eves Tory regime, and in the end, it doesn’t work. Every scrap of educational research indicates that no meaningful reform of education can take place without consultation and dialogue with the teachers charged to implement the reforms.”
“It is time for the BC premier to return to BC, and show both the students and teachers of BC the respect they deserve,” concluded Kimberley-Young.
OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has 50,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support
personnel, attendance counsellors, and many others in education.

The Province:
Workers to walk off job in solidarity
Thousands of unionized workers in Greater Victoria are expected to walk off the job tomorrow as part of a B.C. Federation of Labour bid to get the government to start talking to teachers.Workers to walk off job in solidarity
LABOUR RALLY: Victoria a ‘first step’

Elaine O’Connor
The Province; with files from The Canadian Press

October 16, 2005

Thousands of unionized workers in Greater Victoria are expected to walk off the job tomorrow as part of a B.C. Federation of Labour bid to get the government to start talking to teachers.

The rally is the first step in a plan of escalating action to support teachers and pressure the government to act, said federation president Jim Sinclair.

“This is only Monday. We are giving the government a very strong reason to sit down with teachers and solve this dispute,” Sinclair said Friday, flanked by 15 union leaders.

Union members plan to converge in Confederation Square at 11 a.m. tomorrow and march to the legislature and rally at 1 p.m.

The walk-out is limited to Greater Victoria workers and will not involve essential-service disruptions. Union members working in hospitals with patients, in the long-term care field, with people with disabilities, in correctional services or on the ferries have not been asked to participate.

The day of protest will fall on the sixth day of the B.C. teachers’ strike that has kept 600,000 public-school children out of class.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong seemed unmoved by the tactic, holding to his promise not to bargain with workers in an illegal strike.

“It is troubling to see other organizations wanting to, and apparently on the verge of, linking themselves and their members to behaviour that has already been characterized as illegal — that is continuing in defiance of the two court orders,” he said.

De Jong said the workers could be disciplined under B.C.’s Labour Code.

B.C. Teachers Federation president Jinny Sims said teachers won’t back down.

“This is one of those principled stands for our teachers and you can see that we have support of parents and students and community members,” Sims said.

Labour unions are not alone in rallying for teachers. More than 200 Lower Mainland high-school students filled the intersection of Broadway and Granville a block from Vancouver School Boards offices Friday, chanting, dancing, waving signs and soliciting a deafening number of horn blasts from passing cars, buses, even fire trucks.

“I’d give teachers everything they deserve,” said Grade 12 Kitsilano Secondary student Pippa Mackie over the din. “They work so hard. They inspire me. What they believe in, I believe in.”

Teachers passing by were buoyed by the support.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said Denise Nereida, a Grade 3/4 teacher at Blair Elementary in Richmond.

“They are the ones that are sitting in the overcrowded classrooms. They are the ones that don’t have enough textbooks.”

Meanwhile, some unions have found creative ways to circumvent the court decision barring other unions to help fund the teachers.

The Federation of Post Secondary Educators set up a “Feed the Teachers” fund to distribute $50 food vouchers on the line.

“We’re not circumventing anything. This is very respectful of that order,” said FPSE’s Cindy Oliver.

“People are certainly able to drop off boxes of doughnuts on a picket line and this is no different.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to take that money and feed their

families.”

Twenty-six school boards have called to repeal Bill 12. The B.C. Retired Teachers’ Association and the Council of Senior Citizen’s Organizations of B.C. have also voiced support for teachers.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Vancouver Sun:
BC Labour Federation urges mass protest; Union workers urged to support teachers by shutting down Victoria on Monday”
The B.C. Federation of Labour is urging thousands of unionized employees to walk off their jobs Monday morning and join in a coordinated shutdown of the City of Victoria in support of the province’s striking public school teachers.

Teachers, employers haggle over ruling; Court-appointed assets monitor seeks clarification from judge”
A B.C. Supreme Court judge who put a 30-day freeze on the assets of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said Friday the union is barred from using “all [of its] assets” to help conduct the continuing illegal strike by teachers.

Teachers should know there is an iron fist inside this glove
There’s no question B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown created a novel solution to the teachers’ dispute — stripping their duly elected leadership of its power and the membership of a chance to return to work and save their collective bank account.

Sims: Political prowess, steely resolve
Jinny Sims seems an unlikely candidate to face down the provincial government and the wrath of the courts over an illegal strike by teachers.

Brown: Judge in teachers ruling “one of better” benchers
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown, who crafted the contempt-of-court decision this week against the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, was known as an excellent litigator during her years as a courtroom lawyer.

The Globe and Mail
BC unions discuss Monday walkout
B.C. labour leaders planned to meet Sunday to decide whether public and private-sector union members in the Victoria area would walk off the job Monday in support of the province’s striking teachers.
B.C. Fed urges mass protest
Union workers urged to support teachers by shutting down Victoria on Monday

Darah Hansen
Vancouver Sun; with files from Maurice Bridge and Jonathon Fowlie, Vancouver Sun, and Canadian Press

Saturday, October 15, 2005

CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
Students show support for teachers at Broadway and Granville.
The B.C. Federation of Labour is urging thousands of unionized employees to walk off their jobs Monday morning and join in a coordinated shutdown of the City of Victoria in support of the province’s striking public school teachers. To listen to story, click link: here.

“This is our chance to tell the government that it’s not just teachers they’re dealing with now, it’s the rest of the labour movement who will also be taking action,” federation president Jim Sinclair said Friday at a news conference where he was flanked by the presidents of 15 public and private-sector labour organizations.

Sinclair said he expects thousands of union members to join him in the day of protest, which will start Monday with a march in the capital at 11 a.m., followed by a gathering at the legislature at 1 p.m. in time for the first sitting of the legislature since teachers went on strike Oct. 7.

The move could affect transit and and other public sector services in Victoria, such as liquor stores, government services, restaurants and hotels and post-secondary institutions. However, the unions have agreed that any patient-care services will not be affected, as well as B.C. Ferries and provincial corrections facilities.

Sinclair said the Monday events are just phase one in a larger plan by labour aimed at persuading the government to sit down and negotiate a contract settlement with teachers.

He promised escalated job action, possibly a province-wide general strike, should Monday’s protest fail to gain the government’s attention.

“I don’t rule anything out in terms of where we go from here,” Sinclair said.

Barring a surprise weekend settlement, schools will remain closed Monday.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong responded Friday afternoon by saying leaving work to attend the protest would be a risky move for public sector employees. While the government won’t be seeking a court injunction to stop the demonstration, he said, workers in Victoria who walk off the job to join the rally could be disciplined under the Labour Code.

“I think it is troubling to see other organizations wanting to, and apparently on the verge of, linking themselves and their members to behaviour that has already been characterized as illegal — that is continuing in defiance of the two court orders, de Jong said.

The strike by B.C.’s 42,000 public school teachers was ruled illegal by the B.C. Supreme Court at a special hearing Sunday. On Thursday, the court froze the assets of the teachers’ union for 30 days in punishment for their continued picketing. The ruling means teachers won’t get their $50-a-day strike pay.

Teachers, meanwhile, said the court’s ruling won’t affect their resolve to remain on the picket line.

At a union rally Friday morning at Chief Maquinna elementary school in East Vancouver, teacher Millie Saunders said teachers are standing firm.

“We will stand strong, we will stand together and we will hopefully achieve some of our goals,” she said.

Darcy Olson, a teacher at Vancouver Technical secondary, agreed.

“We need to get back to the bargaining table. The premier must come forward with strength and resolve to see this through — negotiated, not legislated,” she said in reference to a contract settlement.

Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, said Friday that teachers are grateful for the show of solidarity from other unions in the province and vowed that the strike will continue until a contract settlement is reached.

Sims said she hoped a meeting would take place with de Jong over the weekend, in time for school to resume Monday.

“Mr. de Jong, let’s talk over the weekend. This is a window of opportunity, let’s seize it so our students can be back in the classrooms and our teachers teaching,” she said.

De Jong said he, too, was willing to negotiate this weekend, but not while the teachers continued to violate the B.C. Supreme Court order.

“I and the government are available 24/7 to meet with members of the union, today, this weekend, and we attach one . . . condition — they must abide by the law. I want [the teachers] to commit to go back to work and stand down from their illegal action,” he said in a meeting with The Vancouver Sun’s editorial board Friday afternoon.

“I’m not, in my view, even able to engage in some sort of conditional discussion at a time when the Supreme Court of B.C. has made it clear unequivocally what the first step in this process needs to be,” de Jong said.

Hoisting signs reading “We take education seriously” and “Take a stand 4 education,” about 200 Vancouver students made their opinions known Friday at a raucous rally at the intersection of Granville and Broadway.

“The government is clearly showing its contempt and lack of concern for the teachers, for the students and for the people of Vancouver,” said Ian Thomas, a Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill secondary.

“Teachers . . . are the people who are best to acquainted with the problems students face and they have hardly any say at all into the situation. It’s criminal and the teachers have every right to strike opposing this. They are taking a bullet for the students,” Thomas said.

“I’m going to continue to support the teachers while they remain out on strike so that they can get a good settlement, even if this goes on for a few weeks,” said Kirstin Johnson, a Grade 10 student at Kitsilano secondary.

“I have classes with 37 people in them and it’s ridiculous to think these are good conditions to be learning in and that these are acceptable conditions for teachers to be teaching in,” said Sasha Langford, a Grade 11 student at Kitsilano.

Langford said she’s concerned about losing school time if the strike continues, “but I think an issue that is more important is that when we are in school, the conditions aren’t good for us.”

Before going back to work, teachers want to negotiate a contract that includes a 15 per cent wage increase over three years, guarantees of smaller class sizes and more support for special needs students.

B.C. teachers are the third highest paid in Canada.

Education Minister Shirley Bond has said the average teacher starting salary is about $42,000 a year.

dahansen@png.canwest.com

PROTEST PARTICIPANTS

The B.C. Federation of Labour is promising a day of protest Monday that could shut down the city of Victoria. At least 15 public and private-sector unions were on hand Friday to back the federation in its move. They include:

– Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada

– Canadian Auto Workers Union

– International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

– B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union

– Hospital Employees’ Union

– Canadian Union of Public Employees of B.C.

– Federation of Post Secondary Educators

– Union of Needletrades, Textiles and Industrial Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International (UNITE HERE!)

– Canadian Office and Profession Employees’ Union

– Health Sciences Association

– Telecommunications Workers’ Union

– B.C. Building Trades

– B.C. Forum, a province-wide organization for retired union members

– B.C. Nurses’ Union

Ran with fact box “Protest Participants”, which has beenappended to the end of the story. Also See: Time to talk: editorial,C6; Debate of court ruling, A11; Black-belt teachers’ boss, A11.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Sunday » October 16 » 2005

Teachers, employers haggle over ruling
Court-appointed assets monitor seeks clarification from judge

Jonathan Fowlie and Maurice Bridge
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, October 15, 2005

A B.C. Supreme Court judge who put a 30-day freeze on the assets of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said Friday the union is barred from using “all [of its] assets” to help conduct the continuing illegal strike by teachers.

But the attempt by Justice Brenda Brown to clarify her initial ruling left the BCTF and the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association still wrangling over just what she meant.

“With respect to the prohibition on the union using its assets, those are all the assets of the union,” Brown said in a late-afternoon session, adding the order extends beyond just the BCTF to all of its union locals.

The attempt at clarification came at the request of court-appointed monitor Larry Prentice, and followed a day filled with arguments over what Brown meant when she ruled Thursday.

Brown put a freeze on the union’s assets, prohibiting it from paying its members for picketing, and enjoining the BCTF from “using its books, records and office to permit third parties to facilitate continuing breach of the court order.”

Provincial Labour Minister Mike de Jong hailed the ruling, and said it meant the union could not “use any of its assets — including its office, faxes and websites — to further this illegal activity.”

But Friday, BCTF president Jinny Sims disagreed.

Sims confirmed striking teachers would not receive their $50 daily strike pay, but maintained that it would otherwise be business as usual. “I don’t think there’s a court order to say we can’t use our phones and our faxes,” she said. “That’s just Mike de Jong’s version of what he thinks the court order means.”

Brown’s late-afternoon ruling Friday did not appear to clear up that discrepancy in the views of the two sides.

“What the court order means is that the BCTF cannot use any assets, whether they are financial, building, phone, fax,” said Michael Hancock, in-house counsel for the employers’ association, which bargains for B.C.’s 60 school boards.

“They cannot use any of those assets, nor can any of its locals use any of those sorts of assets, to facilitate a continuing breach of the court order,” he told reporters.

Sebastian Anderson, counsel for the BCTF, disagreed noting that Brown had not been specific in establishing rules governing the use of specific assets, and that she instead had ruled that the court would deal with questions of potential breaches as they were raised.

“She said that if it [specific use of fax machines, phones and other items] became a matter later on she’d consider that in terms of what the penalty would be,” Anderson told reporters outside the court.

Hancock added the employers’ association will be asking for the penalty phase — where fines or other penalties may be imposed — to “happen as soon as possible. No date has so far been set.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C., which has 10,000 members provincewide, announced Friday it has set aside an initial commitment of $200,000 to a “Feed the Teachers Fund” to buy food vouchers.

FPSE president Cindy Oliver said it was clear the provincial government was hoping to starve the teachers into submission.

“The teachers are making nothing right now, and certainly our members did not want to see any teachers going hungry because of their struggle for a fairly negotiated collective agreement,” she said.

Oliver said the FPSE action does not constitute defiance of the court order.

“We believe this is respectful of the court order,” she said. “People can drop off coffee and doughnuts to a picket line, and we’re just dropping off $50- vouchers and helping the teachers feed their families.”

Oliver added the FPSE is appealing to its national organization, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, as well as to the B.C. labour movement, for additional support for its food-voucher initiative.

jfowlie@png.canwest.com

mbridge @png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Teachers should know there’s an iron fist inside this glove

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, October 15, 2005

There’s no question B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown created a novel solution to the teachers’ dispute — stripping their duly elected leadership of its power and the membership of a chance to return to work and save their collective bank account.

We’ve seen unions slapped with huge fines, we’ve seen union leaders jailed for disobeying court orders unilaterally ending labour disputes.

In this case, Brown has ordered all the union’s bank accounts, assets and subsidiary business entities monitored for 30 days to ensure none of its resources are used to help sustain the illegal walkout.

Most people in the labour world were gobsmacked at what was generally described as an innovative, brilliant, unprecedented, historic, sophisticated decision.

We’ll see.

Though such a ruling is unprecedented in labour law, it’s the kind of approach you often see in bankruptcy cases, which was a big part of Brown’s legal background before she joined the bench in 2002.

She has practised insolvency law and this kind of order is practically boilerplate in situations where a company declares bankruptcy or seeks protection from creditors.

In many cases, the court uses its discretion to insert a monitor into the company to do exactly what Brown has ordered here — watchdog spending and cash flow.

Brown used the inherent jurisdiction of the court to apply a remedy to the teachers’ dispute that we usually see under very different circumstances.

Whether it works better than the usual punishment of fines and imprisonment remains to be seen.

As he watched teachers continue to picket Friday at a junior secondary and an elementary school across from his house, chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s labour law section Gavin Marshall agreed but continued to laud Brown.

“I thought it was a very sophisticated way of approaching the problem — I think it’s unique in Canadian labour history to appoint a monitor to oversee the assets of a public sector union in a contempt of court situation,” he told me.

I think Brown correctly understood that she was being painted into a corner by bad legislation and the dinosaur dynamics of school labour relations.

She found an elegant way, in my opinion, to strangle the ability of the union to continue what has been declared an illegal activity in a manner that doesn’t create the impression the court is taking sides.

That’s a really good aspect to her decision.

But there is an iron fist inside this velvet glove.

Her ruling leaves open the prospect of a serious penalty being imposed down the road if the teachers don’t wind down their job action.

“She walked a finer legal line than many people expected,” Marshall said.

“It’s certainly not the hammer we were expecting.”

No, the hammer is just being held back for now.

Let’s face it, the union executive had no intention of obeying any order, regardless of cost.

They made that clear in their public pronouncements and Brown took them at their word.

With her judgment though, she stepped over them and delivered a message directly to the individual members and their wallets.

She’s given each teacher a chance to return to work or stand up and prove what the leadership has been saying is true — there are principles on the line here that demand large-scale civil disobedience.

I’m skeptical.

It looks like they want more money to me.

Furthermore, I keep hearing mounting anecdotal evidence that many BCTF members want a face-saving solution to end this impasse.

I think Brown provided that.

If the teachers don’t return to work, I expect Brown to really make it hurt.

And this decision underscores just what kind of sweeping power she has.

– – –

On Monday I wrote a column that said Veselin Topalov was on the verge of winning the world chess championship.

On Thursday he coasted to victory, winning the title with a round to spare over seven of the world’s best players.

The 30-year-old Bulgarian was inspired throughout the tournament that saw him outplay his opponents, go undefeated and score 10 points out of a possible 14.

He drew his last game Friday against Judit Polgar, the strongest-ever woman player.

imulgrew@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Sims: Political prowess, steely resolve

Steve Mertl
Canadian Press

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Jinny Sims seems an unlikely candidate to face down the provincial government and the wrath of the courts over an illegal strike by teachers.

The head of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation is a diminutive 53-year-old.

But there’s also this about Sims: she has a black belt in judo and as a former competitive fencer knows something about swordplay. She can also work a room like a veteran politician, making the kind of individual connection that conveys her message and cements loyalty.

Sims was a child when her family emigrated to England from India’s Punjab in 1962.

She once dreamed of becoming an airline pilot, among other things, but volunteer work as a teenager drew her to teaching.

Sims earned her credentials in England and taught there initially, heading her school’s judo and fencing teams as well as working with youth in a juvenile prison.

She and teacher-husband Stephen Sims came to Canada in 1975, teaching for two years in Quebec before settling in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. Sims taught high school social studies and English while also serving as a guidance counsellor.

Sims got involved with the federation early, mainly on issues of social justice and the status of women.

The federation didn’t become the teachers’ accredited bargaining agent until the late 1980s.

“I would say that mobilized me in a political way, though I believe all of my involvement has been political,” Sims says.

Her involvement intensified as the union fought with successive B.C. governments over not just wages but class sizes and school funding.

“I worked very hard in my lifetime of teaching to make improvements for students’ learning conditions,” she says. “In 2002, I cried when those were stripped away by the stroke of a pen by a government through legislation once again.”

David Chudnovsky, a former president of the federation and now a New Democratic Party MLA, says of Sims: “She’s a schoolteacher, she’s a grandma, she’s a very kind-hearted, good-hearted person, but nobody should underestimate her resolve.”

Her approach seems to resonate with others in the labour movement too. The 470,000-member B.C. Federation of Labour’s affiliated unions are rallying round and there are rumblings of a general strike.

“We’ve never been to where Jinny Sims has brought us,” says Terry Allan, a member of a Canadian Union of Public Employees’ local that represents school support staff. “It’s as scary for us as it is for them. Nobody’s ever been this far.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Brown: Judge in teachers ruling ‘one of better’ benchers

Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, October 15, 2005

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown, who crafted the contempt-of-court decision this week against the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, was known as an excellent litigator during her years as a courtroom lawyer.

“She was excellent counsel and hers was one of the better appointments to the bench in a long, long time,” said George Cadman, a senior lawyer at the Vancouver law firm Boughton, where Brown worked in the 1980s when the firm was known as Boughton Peterson Yang Anderson.

“She practised in the litigation section and was very good counsel,” Cadman recalled.

In 1995, Brown went to work for another Vancouver firm, Davis & Co., specializing in civil litigation in the areas of insolvency, construction and commercial law. Brown was an associate counsel at the firm when she was appointed to the bench of the B.C. Supreme Court on April 18, 2002.

A profile of Brown in The Advocate, a journal published by the Vancouver Bar Association, says she was born in Alberta and grew up near Pincher Creek, where her parents ran a general store and service station.

She graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in psychology and obtained her law degree from the University of Victoria in 1980. She worked as a law clerk for a year at the B.C Court of Appeal, doing legal research for judges on cases, and articled with the late Boyd Ferris at Boughton. She was called to the bar in 1982.

She married criminal lawyer Norman Callegaro and has two teenagers, a son and daughter.

The Advocate had this to say about Brown: “She has the charm of enjoying a laugh at her own expense more than the expense of others. She is an eclectic reader and movie watcher and no stranger to subtitles. A good bottle of wine is not wasted on Brenda, who attends a monthly wine dinner with compatriots with similar taste buds.”

One of Brown’s first high-profile cases as a judge was in November, 2002, when she ruled against the City of Vancouver over the Arbutus corridor, which included a rail line running north-south through Kitsilano and along Arbutus to the Fraser River.

The city wanted to preserve the corridor for transportation but property owner Canadian Pacific Railway planned to develop the land for housing, commercial or industrial uses.

CPR launched the legal challenge after Vancouver city council passed a bylaw in July 2000 designating the corridor for use only as a public thoroughfare. In her 37-page decision, Brown ruled the city did not have the power to enact such a bylaw and quashed it.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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B.C. unions to discuss Monday walkout
By JEREMY HAINSWORTH
Saturday, October 15, 2005 Posted at 8:07 PM EDT
Canadian Press

Vancouver — B.C. labour leaders planned to meet Sunday to decide whether public and private-sector union members in the Victoria area would walk off the job Monday in support of the province’s striking teachers.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong said that while the government won’t seek a court injunction to stop the unions from walking out, it could be risky for them.

Mr. de Jong said Friday he finds it troubling that other unions would link themselves to the B.C. Teachers’ Federation whose strike has been characterized as illegal and continues in defiance of two court orders.

He said workers who join a Monday walkout could be disciplined under the provincial Labour Code.

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair said he would call off the walkout if the government agreed to sit down to bargain with the teachers over the weekend.

“There’s still lots of time left but I haven’t heard any news from the teachers that would encourage me that the government understands that it’s going to take some conversations between the parties to fix the problem,” Mr. Sinclair said Saturday.

Mr. Sinclair has asked members of public and private sector unions to leave work and join a march in Victoria at 11 a.m. Monday and gather at the legislature at 1 p.m. as it sits for the first time since the strike began Oct. 7.

“It is going to be a lot of people,” Mr. Sinclair said. “This is a very serious, sobering moment for the labour movement.

“None of us are excited or ecstatic about what’s happening here,” he said. “This is a very difficult situation made all the more difficult by the fact that the government which is actually the employer of these . . . teachers is refusing to talk to their employees.

“They’re hiding behind the courts and it’s not going to work and it’s making a big mess out of the education system.”

Federation officials were to meet on Sunday to see what events had transpired during the weekend.

Mr. de Jong, however, has vowed not to bargain with people who are breaking the law.

And teachers’ union president Jinny Sims remains just as resolute.

She says the teachers will not back down.

She has remained open to meeting with government representatives and maintains she is confounded by the minister’s refusal to meet with teachers.

Mr. Sinclair has the backing of the leaders of the Canadian Auto Workers, B.C. Government Employees’ Union, Hospital Employees’ Union the Canadian Union of Public Employees and many more.

He said the protest Monday won’t affect patient-care services, extended care or services to those with disabilities.

“It is absolutely essential that we are disciplined in our support and that we do not give government a way to shift the focus from teachers and students by turning a spotlight on disruptions to patient, resident and client care,” Hospital Employees’ Union secretary-business manager Judy Darcy said in a news release.

The strike by 38,000 B.C. teachers has kept about 600,000 public school students from kindergarten to Grade 12 out of school.

Mr. Sinclair indicated the 470,000-member federation’s campaign in support of teachers could escalate if there’s no resolution to the dispute.

Striking B.C. teachers said on Friday that a court ruling freezing their strike pay has only hardened their resolve to stay off the job until the government negotiates with them.

The B.C. Supreme Court has frozen the assets of the B.C. Teachers Federation to punish teachers for continuing their illegal strike.

The ruling Thursday means teachers won’t get their $50-a-day strike pay.

The B.C. government imposed a contract on teachers that contains no wage increase.

Although the B.C. Labour Relations Board ruled last Oct. 7 that the teachers’ strike was illegal, they have stayed off the job.

Last weekend, the B.C. Supreme Court found them in contempt of court for defying the board’s ruling.

Before going back to work, teachers want to negotiate a contract that includes a 15 per cent wage increase over three years and guarantees of smaller classes.

B.C. teachers are the third highest-paid in Canada.

Education Minister Shirley Bond has said the average teacher starting salary is about $42,000 a year.

The Vancouver Sun:
Court cracks down on teachers
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation is prohibited from providing strike pay to its members and may no longer use its hefty war chest to finance an illegal walkout that has closed public schools for a week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ruled Thursday.

This strike is about more than money, defiant teachers say
Striking teachers at one Vancouver school said Thursday they were encouraged by a B.C. Supreme Court decision not to levy a fine on their union, and vowed to continue picketing despite the financial hardship of the court’s prohibition on strike pay.

“It’s all garbage,” says plaintiff names in class action suit
Jacqueline Grant, the lone plaintiff named in a class-action lawsuit against the teachers and their union, said her former lawyer Denis Berntsen launched the proceeding without her knowledge or consent.

The Globe and Mail:
BC teachers stay off job
British Columbia’s striking teachers dug in their heels Friday, remaining off the job despite a court ruling cutting off their strike pay by effectively freezing their union’s ability to fund the labour dispute.

BC court orders halt on teachers strike pay
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has frozen the financial clout of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation to wage its ongoing, provincewide illegal strike. Instead of levying fines against the union yesterday, as almost all, including leaders of the BCTF, had expected, Madam Justice Brenda Brown took the step of hitting teachers in the pocketbook, by cutting off their $50-a-day strike pay. She further restrained the BCTF from using any of its considerable assets “directly or indirectly” to finance other aspects of the week-old strike by 38,000 teachers.

Vancouver Sun
Court cracks down on teachers
Judge puts 30-day freeze on BCTF’s $14-million collective-bargaining fund

Janet Steffenhagen and Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun

October 14, 2005

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation is prohibited from providing strike pay to its members and may no longer use its hefty war chest to finance an illegal walkout that has closed public schools for a week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ruled Thursday.

The decision surprised both sides but did not appear certain to end their labour dispute.

Rather than fining the union as had been expected, Brown effectively put a 30-day freeze on the BCTF’s $14-million collective-bargaining fund, saying a court-appointed monitor will keep tabs on the union’s activities to ensure no more money is spent on a strike involving 40,000 teachers.

The union had promised teachers who helped with picketing $50 a day.

Brown imposed the penalty — described by all parties as unprecedented in B.C. — after the union ignored her Sunday back-to-work order and her finding that the BCTF was in contempt for continuing a strike that the Labour Relations Board said is illegal. Brown reserved the right to impose a fine at a later date, depending on how the union responds.

BCTF president Jinny Sims appeared unmoved by the decision Thursday afternoon and repeated her vow to continue the job action, now entering its fifth day, until the government agrees to her members’ demands for improved classroom conditions, a fair and reasonable pay raise and restoration of bargaining rights.

“We have our mandate from our members. They gave us that mandate knowing there was going to be consequences,” she said. “Our teachers are taking part in a political protest and right now, our focus is to get to a resolution.”

She said she would have further comments after she and her officials had a chance to study the unusual ruling.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong also continued his tough stance, saying again there will be no talks until the BCTF ends its illegal job action but promising a meeting the day the strike ends.

“It’s time to move forward,” he said, adding that his government will fix the broken bargaining system and will talk to teachers and other education partners about improving the School Act in response to teachers’ concerns about class size and composition.

Regarding the teachers’ request for a pay hike, de Jong promised a “fair and reasonable increase” in 2006 but reiterated there will be nothing before then.

He urged individual teachers to “do what’s right — return to your classes. I make this appeal not just because it’s the right thing to do for students and their families but because the court has ordered it so.”

The court ruling places the union in a form of trusteeship, he said. “The union cannot use any of its assets — including its offices, faxes or websites — to further this illegal action. It cannot pay its members for the time already spent carrying out this illegal activity and it cannot pay them for any further breach of the law.”

De Jong told teachers who want to return to work but fear sanctions that the B.C. Labour Code does not allow unions to penalize members who refuse to participate in an illegal activity.

The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, which bargains for B.C.’s 60 school boards, said the judge’s ruling will likely have a greater impact on striking teachers than the employers’ request for a significant fine.

“We’re very pleased with the court’s ruling. We believe the court has found a very innovative way of ensuring that the BCTF does not continue to finance or otherwise support this illegal job action,” said association lawyer Michael Hancock. “We hope teachers will come back to work and we’ll be able to open our schools again quickly.

“This is more likely to be effective than any fine that the court could impose given the financial assets of the federation,” he said, since fines for civil contempt in labour disputes have traditionally ranged from $80,000 to $150,000.

Naz Mitha, also a lawyer for the employers’ association, said it wasn’t clear Thursday whether the union had already paid members for four days of picketing.

Hancock said the ruling sends a clear message to the union. “It’s saying the BCTF can’t use any of its assets to continue this strike. That means no strike pay, that means no use of BCTF resources to create signs, advertising, all the attendant expenses that go into maintaining an illegal strike.”

Labour expert Ken Thornicroft called the ruling “creative” and suggested it might give the union a way out of a tight position.

Sims has vowed to continue the strike until members have a negotiated settlement, but the government has declared it will not talk to a union engaged in an illegal strike. With the court’s ruling, the union could call off the strike, saying it didn’t want to cause its members financial hardship, and not lose face. Thornicroft said.

“I’m pretty impressed with the ruling,” he said. “By stripping the union members of their strike pay, I think she’s given the union an out.”

jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com

nhall@png.canwest.com

IN THE JUDGE’S WORDS:

Excerpts from B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown’s ruling Thursday that handcuffs the B.C. Teachers’ Federation’s ability to pay striking teachers their $50-a-day picket pay.

“The BCTF is restrained for 30 days from directly or indirectly using its assets to facilitate breach of the court order of October 6, 2005. In particular, the BCTF is enjoined from paying amounts to its members as ‘strike pay’ or to otherwise compensate members for loss relating to breach of the order of October 6, 2005; from providing guarantees or promises to pay to protect members from such losses; from using its books, records and offices to permit third parties to facilitate continuing breach of the court order. Either party may apply to extend or shorten this order.”

“I am appointing a monitor to ensure that this order is obeyed.”

“The BCTF may use assets in the ordinary course of business, which would include such things as paying rent, wages to employees and other expenses it would normally pay. It may pay legal fees.”

Ran with fact box “In the Judge’s Words”, which has beenappended to the end of the story.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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The Vancouver Sun

This strike’s about more than money, defiant teachers say
Teachers show strong resolve to continue the fight, despite court’s freeze of strike fund

Jenny Lee
Vancouver Sun

Friday, October 14, 2005

CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
Striking teachers Denis Lejay and Sheila Mullins picket at Kitsilano secondary after learning their strike fund will be frozen.
Striking teachers at one Vancouver school said Thursday they were encouraged by a B.C. Supreme Court decision not to levy a fine on their union, and vowed to continue picketing despite the financial hardship of the court’s prohibition on strike pay.

French immersion teacher Lukas Morel echoed the sentiments of many pickets outside Kitsilano secondary school.

“If anything, we take [the B.C. Supreme Court decision] as positive news for us because our union is not being penalized for what we’re doing,” said Morel, 26, who is walking the picket line just weeks into his first teaching job.

“By not fining us anything, they are giving us unofficial approval of what we’re doing,” Morel said.

Brian Denhertog, who teaches technical studies, was also picketing Thursday.

“I don’t know a single teacher who is out here because of $50 strike pay,” he said. “I’m not here for $50.

“I’m going to come and stand here until the government negotiates a settlement with my federation.”

French immersion and social studies teacher Erin Fitzpatrick agreed.

“For most of us, it’s not about wages and it’s certainly not about strike pay,” she said. “It’s not about money. If I wanted money, I wouldn’t be a teacher.”

“We just believe we have right on our side and we hope we have parents on our side,” Fitzpatrick said. “As long as I can stand here on the sidewalk, I will.”

Ken Scott, a Kitsilano secondary school media arts, theatre arts and English teacher, has three children aged 11, nine and four. Scott’s wife works part time and his family will soon feel the financial pinch.

“If I lose my salary for a cause, it has to be a really good reason and I see the value of making this commitment right the way down the line,” Scott said.

English and social studies teacher Brad Price joined the Kitsilano picket line Thursday with his four-month-old daughter Lucy, after doing picket duty in Richmond.

“I don’t think the $50 a day is going to change too many people’s minds,” said Price, whose wife is a teacher on maternity leave and receiving pay. “I think the resolve is very strong.”

First-year teacher Morel said his class sizes aren’t too bad, with the largest at 30 students, but he is short full class sets of some books, and knows other teachers face more challenging teaching conditions.

Fifty dollars in daily strike pay would have paid for food and gas, but Morel said “I can last a little while. I have family who can help me.”

Morel has a little under $1,000 in his bank account, but no student loans to repay. So far, he’s just been cutting back on extras such as gas, restaurants and going to the movies.

On Thursday afternoon, the Kitsilano pickets were uncertain of the implications of the court’s freeze on the B.C. Teachers’ Federation’s $14-million collective-bargaining fund.

If the BCTF needs funds to continue the strike, Fitzpatrick, whose spouse is earning a paycheque, said she is personally willing to contribute.

jennylee@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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The Vancouver Sun

‘It’s all garbage’ says plaintiff named in class action

Louise Dickson
Victoria Times Colonist

Friday, October 14, 2005

VICTORIA — Jacqueline Grant, the lone plaintiff named in a class-action lawsuit against the teachers and their union, said her former lawyer Denis Berntsen launched the proceeding without her knowledge or consent.

“It’s all garbage,” Grant, 35, a Saanich mother and day care worker, said Wednesday. “I haven’t signed anything, I haven’t even met with the man. I talked to him on the phone once last Thursday and the next thing I know my name’s in the paper.

“He’s saying he advised me not to speak publicly about the suit but he didn’t advise me of anything. I didn’t agree to any of this. And I’m the lone plaintiff. I’m like, how does that happen?”

On Tuesday, Berntsen named Jacqueline Grant as the lone plaintiff in a statement of claim accusing teachers, their union and Jinny Sims, their leader, of negligence in their move to strike, even in the face of legislation and legal decisions which have declared the strike illegal.

That negligence, contends the statement of claim, includes the failure to instruct union members to return to work and the negligent efforts to maintain service levels.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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B.C. teachers stay off job
By TERRY WEBER
Friday, October 14, 2005 Posted at 2:20 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update

British Columbia’s striking teachers dug in their heels Friday, remaining off the job despite a court ruling cutting off their strike pay by effectively freezing their union’s ability to fund the labour dispute.

Picket lines went up at public schools around the province again early Friday as the province’s roughly 40,000 teachers continued what they have labelled a political protest against the government’s efforts to impose a two-year contract.

School boards province wide once again told parents to keep their children at home.

“The teachers’ strike and picketing at schools across the province will continue today,” a recorded message on the North Vancouver School District’s information hotline said.

“The duration of the job action remains uncertain at this time.”

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims said Friday teachers will remain on the picket line for improved learning conditions, for students and for the return of union bargaining rights.

She also said the court ruling won’t stop the union from communicating with its members.

“We will continue to support our members and we will continue to communicate with them,” she said.

“This is a collective action and we’re all in this together.”

The B.C. Federation of Labour, meanwhile, was expected to hold a press conference later in the day to outline how other provincial unions will support striking teachers. The federation has already scheduled a late morning march and rally in support of the teachers scheduled to take place Monday in front of the provincial legislature.

In a surprise ruling Thursday afternoon, B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown placed tight restrictions on how the teachers’ federation can use its assets, essentially taking control of the union’s strike fund for 30 days.

The decision means neither union money nor third-party donations can be used to pay striking teachers their $50-a-day picket pay.

Judge Brown said the federation could still fund day-to-day business operations and its legal expenses but appointed a monitor to oversee union’s finances to make sure her order is obeyed. But the union cannot use any of its assets — including its offices, faxes or Web site to further the action, according to the B.C. provincial government’s interpretation of the decision.

Most had been expecting the judge to impose a stiff fine on the union for failing to abide by an earlier labour board order, which labelled the action an illegal strike and ordered teachers to go back to work. The labour board decision was upheld by Judge Brown at a hearing last weekend, leading to Thursday’s ruling.

The teachers say that they respect the law but must protest against what they say is unjust legislation, which seeks to impose a two-year contract with no pay increase and no ability to negotiate issues such as class size and composition.

The dispute has kept 600,000 public school students from kindergarten to Grade 12 out of class since last Friday.

Teachers have not successfully negotiated a contract since 1993 without the government’s stepping in.

However, B.C. Labour Minister Mike de Jong has called on the striking teachers to return to the classroom in the wake of the latest court ruling.

“In light of such an unprecedented ruling, I am today appealing to individual teachers to do what is right,” he said.

“Return to your classes. I make this appeal not just because it is the right thing to do for students and their families, but because the court has ordered it.”

Meanwhile, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell continued to draw fire Friday after a week of meetings in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, which kept him away from his home province during the dispute.

“By refusing to negotiate with the B.C. teachers, Campbell is showing contempt for public education in the province,” Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Rhonda Kimberley-Young said.

“Every scrap of educational research indicates that no meaningful reform of education can take place without consultation and dialogue with the teachers charged to implement the reforms.”

With a file from Canadian Press

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B.C. court orders halt to teachers’ strike pay
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Friday, October 14, 2005 Page A1

VANCOUVER — A B.C. Supreme Court judge has frozen the financial clout of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation to wage its ongoing, provincewide illegal strike.

Instead of levying fines against the union yesterday, as almost all, including leaders of the BCTF, had expected, Madam Justice Brenda Brown took the step of hitting teachers in the pocketbook, by cutting off their $50-a-day strike pay.

She further restrained the BCTF from using any of its considerable assets “directly or indirectly” to finance other aspects of the week-old strike by 38,000 teachers.

Her surprising, extraordinary decision may prevent the BCTF from printing leaflets, issuing picket-line bulletins, posting information on union websites, organizing rallies and even using their own headquarters, phones and faxes for strike-related activity.

To ensure compliance, Judge Brown appointed an independent monitor to take complete control of the union’s books and records for the next 30 days.

The monitor, to be paid for by the BCTF, will have the power to scrutinize all payments the union makes “on a daily basis,” and report any breaches to the court.

School board lawyer Michael Hancock said the restrictions will put a severe crimp in the union’s ability to maintain its defiant walkout, called to fight a government-imposed two-year contract that provides no wage increase and no improvement in working conditions. In 2001, the government declared teachers an essential service, making the strike illegal.

“What the court has, in fact, ordered is that the BCTF can’t use any of its assets . . . whether liquid cash assets, offices, records . . . to pursue this illegal strike,” Mr. Hancock said. “That is an order which is innovative and, in our view, more significant than what we asked for.”

But yesterday’s ruling, described approvingly by one analyst as a surgical remedy rather than a hammer, had no immediate impact on the teachers’ determination to stay off the job until they have negotiated some form of settlement.

BCTF president Jinny Sims invited government representatives to meet with the union “this afternoon, this evening, throughout the night and into the early hours of the morning” to pursue a resolution to the bitter conflict, which has left more than 600,000 public school students idle across the province.

But the unexpected nature of Judge Brown’s ruling seemed to catch the union off guard, and Ms. Sims declined any more comment until she has discussed its implications further with BCTF lawyers and leaders of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

BCTF communications director Nancy Knickerbocker was forced to tell reporters late yesterday she is not sure if she can still give out information about the teachers’ strike in light of the court-ordered restrictions.

Provincial Labour Minister Mike de Jong reiterated his call for the teachers to return to work.

He said the government is willing to talk about many issues with the BCTF, but only when the union ends its illegal strike.

It is also not totally clear from the court order whether other labour organizations, such as the Federation of Labour, would be allowed to assist the teachers, but the school boards’ Mr. Hancock said such a move would definitely be “against the spirit” of Judge Brown’s decision.

Judge Brown, who was appointed to the B.C. Supreme Court in 2002, found the BCTF guilty of contempt of court last Sunday for defying a back-to-work order by the B.C. Labour Relations Board.

She set yesterday morning to decide on the union’s punishment, which she handed down in a brief but succinct four-page judgment the moment lawyers for both sides concluded 2½ hours of argument.

Nazeer Mitha, lawyer for the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, urged Judge Brown to hit the union with heavy fines and seize its $14-million strike fund to ensure striking teachers not receive compensation.

“That is the most troubling aspect of all, that the BCTF is paying its members to break the law,” Mr. Mitha said.

He said the teachers’ defiance of a court order is unprecedented, because it is ongoing and there is no sign the union is ready to end it.

Union lawyer John Rogers told Judge Brown that teachers have “a great deal of respect for the law, but sometimes the law is so unjust, it cannot be obeyed.”

He recalled words from former B.C. Labour Relations Board chairman Paul Weiler, now a law professor at Harvard University, who said that often, when you “screw the lid down on a union’s right to collective bargain, the lid eventually blows off.”

Mr. Rogers called for a fine of less than $150,000 to be imposed on the BCTF, noting that the union was found guilty of civil contempt, not criminal contempt.

In her ruling, Judge Brown did not free the union from the possibility of subsequent, severe fines, but said: “I do not propose to do that today, although that may be appropriate at a later date.”

Below is a link to a video coverage of the October 11th rally for teachers in downtown Vancouver, as well as student produced reports from the picket line at Templeton Secondary School in East Vancouver on October 7, 2005, the first day of the BC Teachers’ strike against the Liberal government’s imposed contract.

WorkingTV: Video of Vancouver Demo & Templeton Picket Line Report

Approximately 60 people came out to support BC teachers at a demonstration on the UBC campus this morning. The demo was at the site of The University Transition School, a VSB school on UBC’s campus.

Representatives from the UBC FA, CUPE 116, CUPE 2278; CUPE 2950; University Hill Secondary teachers; and the BCTF spoke to the picketers as did a University Hill Secondary student.

Photo Gallery of UBC Demo

The Vancouver Sun:
Teachers stay off job as court eyes penalities
Striking teachers are expected to keep B.C. public schools closed for a fourth day today as the B.C. Supreme Court conducts a special hearing to consider penalties for a union that has refused to obey the law.
Editorial: Teachers, government must find way to stop current madness
British Columbia’s 600,000 public school students are being trampled underfoot as the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation continue their battle for the moral high ground.

The Globe and Mail
School boards expected to push for heavy fiines
Four days into an illegal strike that has shut down the province’s public school system, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation faces its potential punisher today in B.C. Supreme Court.

Times Colonist (Victoria):
Scab teachers on Vancouver Island
Some teachers have decided to defy their union and are crossing picket lines to return to work. For the past three work days, Carl Ratsoy has marked tests, checked equipment for an experiment and developed lesson plans — all standard stuff for the Reynolds Secondary physics teacher.

CBC:
Education ministers urges teachers to scab
With 42,000 teachers in British Columbia in the third day of an illegal strike, the province’s education minister says her government will try to protect teachers who defy their union and return to the classroom.

CTV
Striking BC techers’union facing penalties
The illegal strike by British Columbia’s public school teachers shows no sign of being resolved — despite a court order to return to the classroom.Teachers stay off job as court eyes penalties

Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun

October 13, 2005

Striking teachers are expected to keep B.C. public schools closed for a fourth day today as the B.C. Supreme Court conducts a special hearing to consider penalties for a union that has refused to obey the law.

Labour specialists said Wednesday they were anticipating a hefty fine for the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, but it wasn’t clear what effect that would have since the union has vowed to continue picketing until its contract demands are met.

Ken Thornicroft, a labour relations expert at the University of Victoria, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the court imposed a fine of $250,000 a day, which could be ratcheted up if the union’s defiance continues.

“Sometimes the judges get testy when their authority is ignored,” added Mark Thompson, a labour relations professor at the University of B.C. “When a union goes head-to-head against a government, the union loses one way or another.”

The last time B.C. Supreme Court fined a union for an illegal strike was in 2004, when the Hospital Employees’ Union staged a three-day walkout. But that union, unlike the BCTF, had ended its strike before it was fined.

BCTF president Jinny Sims has said teachers won’t return to the classroom until they have approved a new contract that includes classroom improvements, a wage hike and restoration of full bargaining rights. During bargaining, the teachers requested a 15-per-cent wage increase over three years.

Only a small number of the union’s 42,000 members were crossing picket lines this week. At Reynolds secondary in Victoria, seven teachers were in their classrooms, according to one of them, Ed Stephenson.

In an interview, Stephenson admitted he has never been a union activist but said he wouldn’t cross a legal picket line. The reason he is working now is because the B.C. Labour Relations Board has declared the strike illegal, he said.

“It’s been a choice of conscience,” said Stephenson, a teacher for 30 years. He said the seven teachers have had no trouble with pickets because the school community is respectful of differences of opinions.

The labour relations board on Wednesday confirmed its ruling that the strike is illegal, after considering an appeal from the union.

As a result of the strike, 25,000 support workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are also off the job, even though some are covered by contracts that provided no wage increase.

“Times are better now,” explained the union’s B.C. president Barry O’Neill, pointing to the government’s surplus.

The Liberals have said no public sector union — including the BCTF — will get a wage increase before 2006.

CUPE workers are being paid $10 a day in strike pay, although that will increase if the feud continues beyond 10 days. Teachers receive $50 a day.

The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association says school boards are saving a total of $14 million a day as a result of the job action, and Education Minister Shirley Bond said boards may spend that money in their districts.

CUPE’s O’Neill said the resolve of teachers and support workers is strong. He said if a general strike was to happen, it would likely be spontaneous rather than organized through a union vote.

But Thornicroft said he doesn’t think teachers will get that kind of backing from other unions. “It’s wide but it’s thin,” he said of the support Wednesday.

Both Thornicroft and Thompson said the BCTF’s strategy is a mystery. “When you get into a dispute like this, you always have to have an exit strategy and I don’t know what their exit strategy is,” Thompson said.

Thornicroft said continued defiance could bankrupt the union or bring criminal contempt charges rather than just the civil proceedings now underway.

Criminal contempt could mean a jail term for Sims, although the last time that happened in B.C. was in 1967. The most celebrated example Canada-wide was in 1980 when Jean-Claude Parrot, then leader of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, was jailed for two months.

Thompson said jail terms usually only inflame a labour situation, but escalating fines or fines against individuals have been used in other jurisdictions to force unions to return to work.

“This is kind of a crisis in a democratic society. It really is,” said Thompson. “We’re not in the habit of treating law-abiding citizens badly in our society and by and large [teachers] do obey the law. So you have to try to balance those things.”

jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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Teachers, government must find a way to halt the current madness

Vancouver Sun

Thursday, October 13, 2005

British Columbia’s 600,000 public school students are being trampled underfoot as the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation continue their battle for the moral high ground.

After nearly a week without school, both sides are rapidly losing credibility in their claims to be acting in the best interest of students.

BCTF president Jinny Sims says teachers are willing to stay out on their illegal strike “as long as it takes” to achieve a fair agreement. She has climbed out on a tall ledge with no exit strategy and has taken B.C.’s 40,000 teachers with her.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong says the dispute is out of his hands as long as the teachers continue breaking the law. He echoes the view of Premier Gordon Campbell, who also clings to the position that since his government imposed a contract on teachers there is nothing to negotiate.

Both the government and the BCTF are wrong.

The government is responsible for delivering public education. As long as the schools are closed, the government is failing to deliver that vital service. It cannot duck that responsibility by simply blaming the teachers.

Nor does the fact that the strike is illegal obviate the need for de Jong and his cabinet colleagues to start talking to teachers about how to get them back into the classroom.

Sims, in defending the BCTF, cites the doctrine of civil disobedience, which, in the tradition of Gandhi and the American civil rights movement, argues that people have the moral right and sometimes the moral duty to defy unjust laws.

That is her choice, and today the BCTF may learn just how expensive a choice that can be as the B.C. Supreme Court rules on what penalty to impose after finding the union in contempt of court.

No doubt it will be severe, as it should be. The rule of law must be protected from those who would willfully put themselves above it.

But as we saw with the illegal strike by the Hospital Employees Union, the legal process is separate from the negotiations that will eventually have to be held between teachers and the government to get children back into their classrooms.

Education Minister Shirley Bond seems to believe the way to do that is to get enough teachers to defy their union. By the time that happens, and there is no reason to believe it will, enormous damage will already have been inflicted on students and our school system.

The courts will eventually wear down the BCTF. The union has the resources, however, to endure several million dollars in fines and, from her rhetoric, it sounds like Sims may be prepared to go to jail. In the meantime, however, thousands of children will have suffered unrecoverable losses.

Many students will do just fine, even if the strike were to go on for weeks. Others, including those who were already struggling with school or who can’t count on much help at home, might never catch up this year.

Every day counts. High school students on the semester system who face provincial exams are losing the equivalent of two days for every day schools remain closed.

This madness has to end.

The government must start talking to teachers. It won’t be easy. They are continents apart, hostile and suspicious of each other’s motives. But without dialogue, the gulf between them will never be bridged.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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School boards expected to push for heavy fines
B.C. Supreme Court to consider sanctions against union, teachers on illegal strike
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Thursday, October 13, 2005 Page S3

VANCOUVER — Four days into an illegal strike that has shut down the province’s public school system, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation faces its potential punisher today in B.C. Supreme Court.

Judge Brenda Brown, who found the BCTF guilty of contempt of court last Sunday for defying a back-to-work order, is scheduled to hear arguments this morning on what sanctions should be applied to the teachers and their union.

School boards are expected to press for the BCTF to be hit with heavy fines, particularly in light of the fact the teachers’ strike is continuing and they have vowed not to return to work without a negotiated settlement.

The government is just as firm that there is nothing to negotiate because a new contract has already been imposed on the teachers by Bill 12, passed by the Liberal majority in the legislature late last week after an all-night filibuster by the NDP.

The BCTF has been told to have its chief financial officer in court to provide information on the union’s considerable assets.

Mark Thompson, an industrial relations expert at the University of British Columbia, said the union could face severe penalties for its illegal job action.

“The courts don’t like to get involved in labour disputes if they can help it, but when they are defied, they can get very cross and make the union pay in various ways,” Prof. Thompson said.

The last B.C. union to defy government legislation, the Hospital Employees Union, was fined $150,000 for a three-day illegal strike. But that strike had ended by the time of the court’s decision.

On the eve of today’s court hearing, however, BCTF president Jinny Sims said there is no wavering in the teachers’ commitment to stand up against Bill 12 and the loss of their right to negotiate a new collective agreement.

“We are determined and resolved,” she said. “There is always apprehension when the courts are involved, because we are law-abiding citizens.

“At the same time, we knew when we took our stand that there were going to be consequences. And we are prepared for those consequences.”

Teachers have tried to play by the rules, but the government keeps changing them, Ms. Sims said.

“So for us, as teachers, not to fight back, not to resist, is to say that the government can do whatever they want to the teachers of this province.

“You can’t operate as a professional and look yourself in the eye and live with the kind of rulings this government has meted out on teachers,” she said.

Ms. Sims also clarified the number of teachers who are off the job, previously reported as 42,000. That was an old number, she said. Union membership has fallen in recent years to about 38,000.

In the union’s hastily scheduled vote last week to defy Bill 12, a total of 22,693 teachers voted 90.5 per cent in favour of walking out, about 9,000 fewer than took part in the BCTF’s first strike vote.

Also off the job are 25,000 school support workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees who are respecting the teachers’ picket lines.

“Legal or illegal, they are picket lines, and in the labour movement, we have kind of a motto about picket lines,” said Barry O’Neill, president of CUPE’s B.C. division. “A picket line is a picket line, and we don’t cross.”

He said concern is growing in the labour movement about the Liberal government’s disrespect for collective bargaining, and that might yet escalate into job action by other unions.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Shirley Bond said the government will do all it can on behalf of teachers who want to cross BCTF picket lines and report for work.

A scattering of teachers did so in several school districts around the province yesterday.

Ms. Bond said many more teachers would like to be back in school.

“It’s time that the B.C. Teachers’ Federation actually listened to the voice of not just parents, but many classroom teachers who are expressing that view.”

The Education Minister said the government understands the need for a better bargaining system for teachers and a third party has been appointed to recommend a new structure for the next round of negotiations.

“We are working to fix the system,” Ms. Bond told reporters in Victoria.

Jeff Hopkins, principal at Belmont Secondary School in Victoria, said three teachers were at work yesterday. “Each had their own reason for coming in, but generally, they felt a little anxious and a little frustrated.”
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Times Colonist (Victoria)

Cracks starting to show in teachers’ united front
Union head says members remain united

Jeff Rud
Times Colonist

October 13, 2005

CREDIT: Ray Smith, CanWest News Service
Anne-Marie De Lorey and her children walk the picket line at Central School in support of the B.C. Teachers Federation in Victoria on Friday.
Some teachers have decided to defy their union and are crossing picket lines to return to work.

For the past three work days, Carl Ratsoy has marked tests, checked equipment for an experiment and developed lesson plans — all standard stuff for the Reynolds Secondary physics teacher.

It has been business as usual for Ratsoy, with one glaring exception. There have been no students at the Greater Victoria district high school since the B.C. Teachers’ Federation began its full-scale walkout last Friday.

Ratsoy is among 15 district teachers — out of about 1,200 — who have either refused to walk out or returned since the strike began. At Reynolds, seven of 44 teachers are on the job, while a small number are also reporting at Oak Bay High School.

“To me it’s really pretty simple,” Ratsoy, 44, said Wednesday. “I think I have a legal responsibility, a professional responsibility, that really outweighs all other considerations.”

As a member of the B.C. College of Teachers, Ratsoy said: “I’m sort of expected to obey the rule of law.”

“There must be a better way of resolving disputes,” he added.

B.C.’s teachers have been off the job since Friday in what the Labour Relations Board says is an illegal strike.

Teachers went on strike in reaction to the government imposing a contract after months of fruitless talks. This morning, the B.C. Supreme Court will hear submissions on penalties for the illegal walkout. Court is expected to assess the BCTF daily fines.

BCTF president Jinny Sims said resolve remains solid. Out of 38,000 active members, the vast majority are on picket lines. “As a matter of fact, I’d say we have fewer [dissenters] now than we’ve had in the past — ever.”

Ratsoy said he hasn’t been hassled while walking past strikers and if the walkout is prolonged, he expects more teachers to cross the line. “Payday is, of course, this Friday for teachers and [receiving less pay] will be something that people will have to examine,” he said.

Three teachers were also on the job Wednesday at Belmont Secondary, including Charlene Manning, a 30-year veteran in the Sooke district.

Manning crossed the picket line Friday, was joined by a second colleague Tuesday and another Wednesday.

“It’s illegal and it won’t benefit anybody, I don’t think,” Manning said of the strike. She also crossed Canadian Union of Public Employees picket lines at her school in 2004.

Ratsoy has had a previous battle with his own union, as well, for accepting an appointment by then education minister Christy Clark to a new college of teachers board which the union opposed. “I think a number of teachers . . . do fear disciplinary action,” Ratsoy said. “But I don’t think it’s possible, really. How can a union try to discipline its members for behaving in a lawful manner? That’s absurd.”

Education Minister Shirley Bond said teachers have been calling her office, the Education Ministry and some school boards, to talk about crossing the line.

“We’ve been sharing information,” Bond said, “so they recognize there are laws in this province that would prevent them from being penalized for a personal choice, especially when the activity they’re choosing not to participate in has been deemed illegal. . . . I would hope the union would respect their members’ choice and I’m sure it was a very difficult personal decision.”

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2005

BC Teachers’ Federation Rally and March on the Legislature Grounds in Victoria.

Monday, October 17, 2005

11:00am – 2:45pm

For more information, click here.

Support the Teachers Demo @ UBC!

UBC Faculty, Staff, Students will demonstrate in support of striking BC teachers

When:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13

9:00am

Where:

WEST MALL & MEMORIAL ROAD

[On the “grassy knoll” just east of the Asian Centre; immediately below the Music Building.]

This is a Vancouver School Site (The University Transition Program) and has an active picket line.

Click here for map.