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
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