The Province
Unions vow escalating protest
Labour unrest over the ongoing teachers’ strike is threatening to break into outright war. Today, an estimated 15,000 Vancouver Island Canadian Union of Public Employees members and other public- and private-sector unions are expected to march on the legislature to support teachers.
The Vancouver Sun
BC business council denounces teachers strike
Labour unions are leading B.C. on a “quick road to anarchy” with plans for a large-scale demonstration in Victoria today, B.C. Business Council president Jerry Lampert said Sunday. “We cannot have anarchy and chaos in the province,” he said. “It can only serve to undermine both the economic and social aspects of this great province.”
The Globe and Mail
Labour throws cap into the ring; Public-sector unions plan massive protest in support of 40,000 striking teachers
Thousands of workers will be off the job today protesting against the government’s refusal to negotiate with the province’s striking teachers, with more job action planned in the province tomorrow. The B.C. Federation of Labour and CUPE are staging the massive protest in Victoria in support of the province’s 40,000 teachers who have been off the job since Oct. 7 after the government imposed a new contract on them.Unions vow escalating protests
Today’s rally in Victoria is just the beginning, say labour leaders
David Carrigg and Ethan Baron
The Province; With News Services
October 17, 2005
Labour unrest over the ongoing teachers’ strike is threatening to break into outright war.
Today, an estimated 15,000 Vancouver Island Canadian Union of Public Employees members and other public- and private-sector unions are expected to march on the legislature to support teachers.
Bus travel and municipal services will be disrupted and classes at higher-education facilities such as Camosun College, Royal Roads University and the University of Victoria will be affected.
And tomorrow, about 4,000 northern B.C. CUPE workers plan to protest for a day if the dispute is not settled.
CUPE B.C. president Barry O’Neill said: “Our members will go on as long as it takes to get a settlement. We see collective bargaining going down the tube if we lose this.”
About 25,000 CUPE school-support workers have been on the picket lines with 38,000 teachers since the strike started Oct. 7.
The protest rallies are organized by the B.C. Federation of Labour as a first step in an escalating action to pressure the government to settle with teachers.
Fed president Jim Sinclair has said his 470,000 members could escalate their job action if there’s no resolution to the dispute.
B.C. Teachers Federation president Jinny Sims, who planned to march in today’s protest, said teachers will not go back to work until they get a meeting with Labour Minister Mike de Jong.
“We’re still looking for a table with government,” Sims said.
“There’s not going to be a solution until both sides are sitting in the room.”
But de Jong is refusing to meet with the union until they return to their classrooms. And he warned that the escalating job action is a serious threat to society as a whole.
“I hope no one underestimates the seriousness of the situation,” he said last night.
“When you’ve got teachers openly defying the laws of the land, then you’ve reached breaking point.”
De Jong said his office held informal talks with the B.C. Fed over the weekend, but no resolution was in sight. He would not elaborate.
The teachers are seeking a 15-per-cent wage increase over three years, smaller class sizes and more support for special-needs students.
The government recently passed Bill 12, which rolled over the current collective agreement until next March. The move sparked the strike.
De Jong said that, if the two groups do meet, it will be to discuss issues such as class size, not to negotiate a collective agreement.
Teachers are defying a B.C. Supreme Court order that they return to work, and the union has subsequently had its strike fund frozen.
On another front yesterday, business leaders urged the unions to call off the protest and said the teachers must return to work.
“By engaging in this illegal protest, they are sanctioning an illegal strike that is undermining the rule of law by openly defying our province’s highest legal authority, the B.C. Supreme Court,” said John Winter, president of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce.
Business Council of B.C. president Jerry Lampert said that by engaging in an illegal strike, the teachers and other unions are setting a dangerous precedent.
“Organized labour in Canada generally has a good record of recognizing and respecting the law,” he said.
“The B.C. Federation of Labour’s actions mark a regrettable departure from this tradition.”
Around 600,000 public-school students have been kept out of class.
Opposition Leader Carol James said NDP MLAs will attend today’s protest rally.
Today’s protest won’t affect patient-care services, extended care or those with disabilities. Neither will ferries nor prisons be affected. dcarrigg@png.canwest.com
ebaron@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2005
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Business denounces protest to back teachers
Jonathan Fowlie
Vancouver sun
October 17, 2005
Labour unions are leading B.C. on a “quick road to anarchy” with plans for a large-scale demonstration in Victoria today, B.C. Business Council president Jerry Lampert said Sunday.
“We cannot have anarchy and chaos in the province,” he said. “It can only serve to undermine both the economic and social aspects of this great province.”
But B.C. Federation of Labour spokeswoman Jessie Uppal said there is “unanimous support” for the protest, which is expected to draw thousands of people, among the federation’s member unions.
The head Canadian Union of Public Employees, B.C.’s largest union, warned the province is in for “many days” of labour unrest.
“We are going to escalate this action” beyond today, CUPE B.C. president Barry O’Neill said in a weekend interview. “We will most definitely be moving this dispute to a much higher level.”
Uppal said the B.C. Fed will announce today plans for further action if the government won’t negotiate with teachers.
Nearly a third of CUPE’s B.C. members — 25,000 of them, including school secretarial staff, teaching assistants and custodians — are off work after refusing to cross teacher picket lines.
“Our members will go on as long as it takes to get a settlement,” O’Neill said. “We see collective bargaining going down the tubes if we lose this.”
Lampert, the business council president, warned “the rule of law must prevail” in B.C.
In a Sunday-afternoon press conference, Lampert joined with leaders of the Coalition of B.C. Businesses and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce to denounce the planned action.
The labour federation urged thousands of unionized workers to walk off their jobs this morning to join a coordinated shutdown of the city of Victoria to protest Bill 12, which imposed a contract on teachers, who then launched their illegal strike. A protest march is expected to begin at 11 a.m., followed by a gathering at the legislature at 1 p.m.
In announcing the day of protest, federation president Jim Sinclair said the action marks “the first stage of action.”
“We hope the government reaches out to do the right thing so we don’t have to make further announcements, but we have prepared a plan should the need arise,” he said in a press conference Friday.
Labour Minister Mike de Jong said Sunday the government will not waver.
“We have an obligation to the law, we have an obligation to the court, we have an obligation not to allow the government of British Columbia to be intimidated into a course of action by a group that, at the moment, seems to believe it is above the law,” he said in a conference call with reporters.
De Jong said there has been “dialogue with the B.C. Federation of Labour,” but would not say who was talking and whether any progress had been made.
He said the government will not speak with teachers until they end the strike, and he expects the courts to get more involved as the dispute lingers on.
“It’s the Supreme Court of British Columbia that the union is thumbing its nose at — that the union is insulting,” de Jong said.
At the business leaders’ press conference, Kevin Evans of the Coalition of B.C. Businesses said the teachers’ strike and today’s rally send a poor message to potential migrants and investors.
“There’s no question this is harkening back to some of the bad old days of British Columbia where instability ruled,” he said, asking people across the province to consider the impact of further demonstrations or strikes.
“Our appeal is that individual British Columbians, union workers, non-union workers — step back, try and divorce themselves from the emotion for a moment and ask themselves a very personal question: As a citizen of this province, what is my responsibility to the rule of law and how should I act according to that?”
John Winter, president of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, said that in supporting today’s demonstration, the labour federation is “sanctioning” an illegal strike.
“None of us can place ourselves above the law,” he said. “This is an astonishing abdication of leadership by the B.C. Federation of Labour and they need to give very serious consideration to the long-term consequences of the message they are sending and the destabilizing precedent that it sends.”
Lampert said he supports people’s right to demonstrate, but said that changes when they break the law.
“People from time to time feel laws are unjust. They have ways to protest those laws but they do not have the right, in our society, to defy the law. If you start making exceptions you are on the quick road to anarchy,” he said.
“Organized labour, in a sense, is making a mockery of the courts of B.C. right now and we’re saying that that’s unacceptable.”
Evans said he is concerned about this strike and the precedent being set as other unions approach deadlines in their own collective agreements.
“We are going to be having in the spring a number of collective agreements,” he said. “If this sets the tone . . . for what we are in for in the spring this may look small in comparison.”
jfowlie@png.canwest.com
Files from the Victoria Times Colonist
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Labour throws cap into the ring
Public-sector unions plan massive protest in support of 40,000 striking teachers
By PETTI FONG
Monday, October 17, 2005 Page S1
VANCOUVER — Thousands of workers will be off the job today protesting against the government’s refusal to negotiate with the province’s striking teachers, with more job action planned in the province tomorrow.
The B.C. Federation of Labour and CUPE are staging the massive protest in Victoria in support of the province’s 40,000 teachers who have been off the job since Oct. 7 after the government imposed a new contract on them.
The B.C. Teachers Federation has been in an illegal strike position ever since the Labour Relations Board and the B.C. Supreme Court ruled against its job action, but the union showed no signs yesterday it was willing to back down from its demands for a negotiated settlement.
With no talks planned, it is unlikely schools will reopen in the immediate future .
BCTF president Ginny Sims and thousands of teachers will join other unionized workers at a Victoria park this morning and then march to the legislature to draw attention to their demands for the government to return to bargaining.
Last Thursday, the B.C. Supreme Court froze the teachers’ federation’s assets and ruled the union cannot give $50-a-day strike pay to teachers on the picket line.
Provincial Labour Minister Mike de Jong has steadfastly refused to talk while teachers continue to break the law.
Canadian Union of Public Employees B.C. president Barry O’Neill said 25,000 members who work in schools have already been out in support of teachers around the province, and he expects as many as 10,000 CUPE members at the rally today.
Those CUPE members in postsecondary education institutes and municipalities could shut down many government facilities and universities and colleges on Vancouver Island.
“We’re going to be out for two real reasons,” Mr. O’Neill yesterday said. “We know what happens in the education sector and we live in every one of the communities across the province. We have children and we understand why teachers are doing this.”
The onus now is on the government to resume negotiations, Mr. O’Neill said. While a settlement is not guaranteed at the bargaining table, refusal to talk guarantees continued job action, he said.
The province’s business community, however, urged workers and teachers to return to their jobs.
Jerry Lampert, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of B.C., said he felt compelled to step forward and ask workers to respect the law. Labour leaders have often accused the province’s business community of being a mouthpiece for the Liberals, but Mr. Lampert said yesterday that is not the case here.
“Workers should be asking themselves as a citizen of this province, ‘What is my responsibility to the rule of law?’ ” Mr. Lampert said yesterday.
“The business community feels very strongly that, looking ahead, if the rule of law is not respected, it can truly destabilize the province,” he said.
Mr. Lampert said at this time he has no thoughts about what role the government should be playing to ease the standoff.
Kevin Evans, chairman of the Coalition of B.C. Businesses, said it is extremely hard to quantify the short-term economic impact of the job action.
But the province will lose investors and investment opportunities if labour unrest continues for a prolonged period, he said.
The B.C. Federation of Labour had urged the government to initiate negotiations with teachers over the weekend, but when the province failed to reach out, the federation said people should expect shutdowns throughout greater Victoria.
“The government’s move to legislate a contract and take away democratic rights is an attack on all working people,” said Jim Sinclair, president of the labour federation.
Health-care workers, including those in the Hospital Employees Union and the B.C. Nurses Union, are expected to join teachers and other unionized workers in the rally today.
However, it is not expected that there will be any impact on patient services because health-care facilities will not be shut down and workers on shift will remain on the job.
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