Video: BCTF President Jinny Sims announces walk-out
Vancouver Sun: Teachers vote to walk out; Union intends to set up picket lines Friday and stay out until teachers’ demands are met
B.C.’s public school teachers, angry over a government-imposed contract settlement that includes no wage increase, have voted 90.5 per cent in favour of staging an illegal full-scale walkout beginning Friday and lasting until a solution is reached to the current impasse.
Globe and Mail: BC teachers to walk off job
British Columbia’s public-school teachers, enraged by the province’s decision to impose a two-year contract, vowed to walk off the job tomorrow with no plan in place to return.
The Province: Teachers vote to walk out; Union says it won’t be bullied into legislated deal
Defiant teachers said last night they will walk out on a strike tomorrow, and they won’t go back to work until they have a new contract. “Teachers will mount picket lines on Friday and remain off the job until a settlement is reached,” said Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation. “We will not be bullied into another legislated contract.”Thursday » October 6 » 2005
Teachers vote to walk out
Union intends to set up picket lines Friday and stay out until teachers’ demands are met
Darah Hansen, with files from Jeff Rud, Victoria Times Colonist
Vancouver Sun, with files from the Victoria Times Colonist
October 6, 2005
B.C.’s public school teachers, angry over a government-imposed contract settlement that includes no wage increase, have voted 90.5 per cent in favour of staging an illegal full-scale walkout beginning Friday and lasting until a solution is reached to the current impasse.
“Teachers have spoken clearly. We will not be bullied into accepting another legislated contract that doesn’t meet the needs of our students and doesn’t respect our rights as working people,” B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims told reporters late Wednesday night after the vote results were announced.
Sims said teachers will set up picket lines outside schools across B.C. Friday and will remain off the job until a resolution has been reached and accepted by a subsequent vote by members.
She said an acceptable resolution must address issues of class size, the restoration of bargaining rights that teachers say have been taken away from them and “a fair and reasonable” salary increase.
She said the union is willing to meet with government negotiators around the clock to hammer out a solution.
But she said “we need a partner on the other side who comes and engages in a dialogue.”
Prior to the vote, teachers were informed about the BCTF recommendations they were voting on and the potential consequences of an illegal strike, including heavy fines. “They could even threaten to put me in prison,” Sims said.
She said the turnout for the vote was high, but didn’t give a number. She said the mood was one of “sadness, outrage and frustration that we have been forced to take such a dramatic step to achieve our goals.”
Unlike the one-day protest teachers staged in January 2002 — the last time the province legislated a contract — this time the job action is open-ended.
Under recommendations passed Wednesday night, the province’s 42,000 teachers will stay out until they complete a second vote to return. That opens the door for the possibility of more than one day without instruction in B.C.’s schools.
A vote to return to classes would be called on the recommendation of the BCTF executive council.
On Wednesday, teachers also voted in favour of their union continuing to push government to change its mind about this week’s legislation, which will extend the existing contract to June 30, 2006, effectively quashing the teachers’ right to strike.
Such a meeting is scheduled for today at the legislature, between Sims, Labour Minister Mike de Jong and B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair.
Teachers had been asking for a 15-per-cent wage increase over three years, but the new legislation means they are facing a wage freeze until next June.
In Vancouver, the walkout will affect approximately 55,000 students, from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Speaking prior to the final voting tally, Vancouver school board vice-chairman Allen Blakey said board members would likely hold an emergency meeting with district managers to discuss “how we are going to operate” in the event of a walkout. Contingency plans put in place across the district would depend, he said, on the expected length of the walkout.
John Gaiptman, district superintendent in Greater Victoria, said principals would remain in the schools, but CUPE members in the schools, including secretaries, special-needs assistants, lunch monitors and custodians, have vowed not to cross any teacher picket lines.
“We will be asking parents to keep their kids at home,” said Gaiptman, echoing the plans of other B.C. districts for handling the walkout.
An estimated 2,200 Vancouver teachers gathered at the Orpheum Theatre Wednesday afternoon to hear from union representatives and cast secret-ballot votes on the executive’s recommendations. The ballot simply asked teachers to mark yes or no to their support for the BCTF resolutions.
Outside the theatre, many teachers said the government has left them with no choice but to walk out.
“I feel if we don’t take any action . . . then our rights as human beings are being cut into,” said Anastasia Mirras, a teacher-psychologist in Vancouver.
Teacher Donna Brack said that for her, the worst part of the government’s decision to impose a contract settlement was that it happened so quickly, and that the government treated it so cavalierly.
“The [premier] couldn’t be bothered to give the 55,000 students in Vancouver, and how-ever-many millions in B.C., more than eight or 10 minutes of his time,” Brack said.
Brack, who teaches at the Gathering Place Education Centre in Vancouver’s downtown, said public school class sizes are increasingly unmanageable, and the needs of students aren’t being met.
“I really truly think we’re at a crisis point in public education, and I don’t think that’s being melodramatic,” she said. “People really need to start speaking out if they want to save public education.”
Labour Minister Mike de Jong said his reaction to the planned walkout “is one of profound disappointment and some surprise that the union would show such blatant disregard for the rule of law.”
De Jong said if the teachers’ vote was designed to alter the passage of Bill 12, it will have the opposite effect.
Meanwhile, debate on Bill 12 continued in the house Wednesday night. NDP education critic John Horgan vowed “we’re going to be debating Bill 12 until we can’t debate it any longer.”
Bill 12 is not the only legislation that would make a teacher’s strike illegal. Under provincial legislation regulating essential services, the BCTF can only withdraw services from the classroom after receiving approval through the Labour Relations Board. LRB adjudicator Mark Brown has yet to rule on what constitutes essential services in the classrooms.
Teachers could face civil contempt charges in B.C. Supreme Court for violating provincial legislation. But before it can file its case with the court, the teachers’ employer, the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association, must go to the LRB and have the strike declared illegal.
dahansen@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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B.C. teachers to walk off job
By ROD MICKLEBURGH and PETTI FONG
Thursday, October 6, 2005 Posted at 8:34 AM EDT
Globe and Mail Update
British Columbia’s public-school teachers, enraged by the province’s decision to impose a two-year contract, vowed to walk off the job tomorrow with no plan in place to return.
“Teachers have spoken clearly. We will not be bullied into accepting another legislated contract that doesn’t meet the needs of our students and doesn’t respect our rights,” Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said last night.
Teachers voted 90.5 per cent to protest against the government legislation that earlier this week imposed a two-year contract on the teachers that provides no wage increase and no improvement in their working conditions.
The government’s decision has galvanized teachers, said high-school teacher Ian Weniger.
“They thought they could divide us. But their actions have angered more teachers now than just a few days ago.”
Teachers plan to mount picket lines in schools across British Columbia today and will remain off the job until a resolution is reached, they said.
Ms. Sims said last night that teachers are expressing sadness, outrage and frustration and feel they are being forced to take such dramatic action.
The 42,000 members of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation voted across the province Tuesday and yesterday on recommendations from their union executive to walk during meetings that officials said were extremely well attended.
Today, top labour leaders were to head to Victoria for a critical meeting with Labour Minister Mike de Jong.
“We will be there to discuss whether or not we can find a solution to this dispute,” said B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair, who will be at the meeting along with Ms. Sims.
“Now is the time to do that because I think the teachers are ready to sit down and solve the problem, and the government should be too.”
Also expected to be there are labour federation secretary-treasurer Angela Schira, George Heyman of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union and Barry O’Neill, head of the B.C. division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Vancouver teachers appeared boisterous and determined as they met yesterday afternoon for a rally at the historic Orpheum Theatre downtown.
Many said they are angry at the deterioration of learning conditions in their schools since the Liberals took office in 2001.
“We can’t go on and pretend that things will somehow get better while we muddle through and kids keep falling through the cracks,” Mr. Weniger said. “This has to stop and this has to stop now.”
Michael Schratter, a Grade 5 teacher at David Oppenheimer School, said there is more at stake than a temporary classroom disruption for students and their parents.
“As much as they are hurt and as much as my action will create hardship, my heart tells me our social democracy is in question, and I have to take a stand,” he said.
“There are two pillars worth standing up for and making people listen and take action: They are public health care and public education.”
Ms. Sims, who announced this week that teacher negotiators are prepared to return to the bargaining table “without preconditions,” said she intends to press home that message in today’s meeting with the Labour Minister.
“We will be saying, ‘Negotiate, talk, don’t legislate,’ ” the BCTF president told reporters.
“Legislation will not bring stability to the public education system and will damage teacher morale.”
In agreeing to meet with union representatives, Mr. de Jong emphasized that the government’s legislation, Bill 12, expected to pass later today, is not up for discussion.
But there could be talk about issues outside the teachers’ collective agreement, such as class size and devising a new negotiating structure, he said.
Mr. Sinclair said the labour movement supports the teachers in their struggle for a new contract.
He charged that the government is hardly a disinterested third party, since it has already mandated no wage increase for union members and used earlier legislation to take away their right to negotiate class size.
“The employers are given nothing to negotiate and then the government blames the teachers,” Mr. Sinclair said. “The employer in this situation is the government.”
A spokesperson for the B.C. Public School Employers Association, representing the province’s 60 school boards, said they will have no comment on the escalating showdown until they get official word about the teachers’ action.
However, the employers association will likely seek a declaration from the B.C. Labour Relations Board that the walkout is illegal, leaving the teachers and their union open to heavy fines.
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Thursday » October 6 » 2005
Teachers vote to walk out
Union says it won’t be bullied into legislated deal
David Carrigg, Elaine O’Connor and Ian Bailey
The Province
Thursday, October 06, 2005
CREDIT: Jason Payne, The Province
Teachers file into the Orpheum Theatre yesterday to vote on what action they should take in their labour dispute.
Defiant teachers said last night they will walk out on a strike tomorrow, and they won’t go back to work until they have a new contract.
“Teachers will mount picket lines on Friday and remain off the job until a settlement is reached,” said Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation.
“We will not be bullied into another legislated contract.”
Sims said all the teachers who turned out to vote on what to do in the face of an imposed contract were aware of the consequences.
“There could be a range of consequences,” she said. “They could threaten to put me in prison.”
Teachers voted 90.5 per cent in favour of the union’s action plan, which calls for the strike.
Sims said teachers want class size and composition guarantees, bargaining rights and fair and reasonable salary increases.
She said she believes teachers have “lots of support out there. I want to reassure parents that teaches are going to work very hard to find solutions.
“After four years of legislative attacks by this government, teachers cannot stand by and allow another school year to pass while conditions deteriorate in classrooms, and morale plummets in staff rooms.”
In Victoria, Labour Minister Mike de Jong slammed the teachers for moving to break the law, suggesting they are setting a bad example for the children they are responsible for.
“If the union follows through on what they appear to be threatening today, it will be a violation of the labour code,” a grim de Jong said minutes after the union’s announcement.
“That’s hardly the kind of example you expect from people who are teaching kids.
“I would like to think that someone in Ms. Sims’ position, a position of responsibility, wouldn’t need to be told that breaking the law is unwise.”
He said the Liberal government is not planning any action except to pass Bill 12, which imposes the teachers’ expired contract until next June.
It will be up to employers, the B.C. Public School Employers Association, to take the teachers to the Labour Relations Board to protest their walkout and seek sanctions likely to include hefty fines, said de Jong.
“There are serious sanctions and I hope that both the union and their membership think very hard, both about the example they’re setting, and the sanctions that will accrue to them if they proceed.”
The government hopes to pass Bill 12 by tonight.
When de Jong introduced the legislation on Monday he said an industrial inquiry commissioner would be appointed to develop a new bargaining process before the imposed contract expires next June.
De Jong is to meet today with a labour delegation, including Sims, at his legislature office to try to find a way out of the impasse.
“I am going to ask her to reconsider,” he said.
The longer a strike goes, the more susceptible the union is to legal penalties. It could be fined if the LRB rules it is an illegal strike, and could leave the federation open to essential service lawsuits from parents seeking class-action compensation.
Since 1993, B.C. teachers have had a contract imposed four times by the NDP and the Liberals.
n The union was in court yesterday to set a date for arguments on whether the definition of a strike in B.C. labour law violates the Charter of Rights.
The union is seeking a judicial review of a B.C. Labour Relations Board decision that the definition is not unconstitutional.
The hearing, which involves the Hospital Employees Union siding with the teachers’ union in B.C. Supreme Court, is expected to start Oct. 24.
NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth would not comment last night on the union’s plans.
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