The Globe and Mail: Teachers cast vote on illegal walkout
Labour leaders call for crucial meeting with Premier amid threat of job action
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Wednesday, October 5, 2005 Page S1
VANCOUVER — British Columbia labour leaders yesterday demanded an urgent meeting with Premier Gordon Campbell and Labour Minister Mike de Jong to head off a threatened illegal walkout by the province’s 42,000 public school teachers on Friday.Members of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation are voting on the job-action plan, which their union recommended after a series of emergency strategy sessions.
Results of the teachers’ vote are expected later today.
The teachers have no timetable to return to work after the Thanksgiving weekend should they walk off the job en masse on Friday. The BCTF plan dictates that teaching will not resume unless it is approved by the membership in a subsequent vote.
Although BCTF leaders tried to keep their strategy under wraps until members learned of the details, word leaked out within hours of it being drawn up.
Government legislation this week imposed a new two-year contract on the teachers. The agreement provides no wage increase and no improvement in working conditions.
“Teachers cannot live any longer with having their working conditions unchanged, for year after year after year,” declared BCTF president Jinny Sims.
“When the very people who teach our students have their rights stripped away like this, it is a sad, sad day.”
But B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair said the government can still avoid a messy, nasty confrontation.
“This is a very critical time, again, in the life of this province, and we want to sit down and discuss a solution to this dispute,” Mr. Sinclair said after meeting with Ms. Sims and other union leaders.
“If [Premier Campbell and Mr. de Jong are] not willing to meet with us, then they are clearly not interested in seeking solutions,” he said. “This is not just an issue for the BCTF. It is an issue for the B.C. Federation of Labour and working people across the province.”
At the same time, Ms. Sims appeared to offer an olive branch, pledging to return to negotiations for a new contract “without preconditions.”
Her call may mean the teachers no longer require a “fair and reasonable wage increase” in defiance of a government-mandated, two-year wage freeze.
“We believe a solution is possible. Legislation is not the answer. It does absolutely nothing to address the learning conditions of our students,” she said, standing beside Mr. Sinclair and other members of the labour federation’s executive.
Friday’s walkout would be the teachers’ second protest strike since the Liberals came to office in 2001. They held a one-day walkout in early 2002, after the government imposed a three-year contract.
Teachers have become fierce foes of Mr. Campbell’s government, which brought in legislation stripping them of the right to negotiate class size and including them in the province’s essential-services regulations.
During the last election, the BCTF spent an estimated $5-million in anti-Liberal advertising.
The teachers’ mood was not improved by full-page government ads in newspapers yesterday, explaining the legislation under the large headline “Taking Action for B.C. Students.”
Yet Ms. Sims said learning conditions for students have deteriorated markedly under the Liberals, particularly for those with special needs.
Bill 12 was brought in a week before the teachers had been scheduled to launch rotating strikes.
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