Category Archives: K-12 issues

Vancouver Sun:

Teachers defiant
B.C.’s labour movement put on a strong show of support for striking teachers Tuesday with demonstrations around the province, including a boisterous gathering of about 2,000 trade unionists and members of the public outside the provincial cabinet offices in Vancouver.

Parents’ lawsuit seeks damages
A class-action lawsuit that alleges negligence by striking teachers, their union and their union president has been launched in Victoria.

The Globe and Mail:

Taylor rules out wage increase for teachers
If the British Columbia’s Liberals give teachers a pay increase, they’ll face a “revolution” from other public servants who saw their wages remain unchanged this year as part of B.C.’s public-service wage freeze, the province’s Finance Minister said yesterday.

Teachers v. law
British Columbia’s 42,000 public-school teachers obviously have serious grievances against the provincial government, grievances that should not be taken lightly. It’s also plain that their bargaining relationship is dysfunctional, as the government itself acknowledges. The proof is that the two sides have repeatedly been unable to reach a negotiated settlement, regardless of which party has been in power. But that does not justify the teachers’ decision to flout the law by staging an illegal strike.

BC teachers, government playing game of chicken
Striking teachers and the B.C. government are playing a high-stakes game of chicken to win public support in a thorny dispute that has shut down public schools since Friday and kept 600,000 students out of classrooms.

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Approximately 5,000 people gathered at Canada Place in downtown Vancouver this afternoon for a high-sprited rally in support of the striking BC teachers. The Vancouver rally was one of 18 demonstrations in support of teachers taking place across British Columbia today and tomorrow.

The rally, sponsored by the British Columbia Labour Federation, included a strong showing of support of workers from other sectors including the CUPE, Longshoremen, IBEW, Hospital Employee’s Union, BC Government and Services Employees’ Union, Telecommunications Workers Union (and others), as well many parents, and students.

Speakers included BCTF President Jinny Sims, BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair, CUPE President Barry O’Neill, Canadian Federation of Teachers President Winston Carter, Vancouver School Board Trustee Allan Wong, and parent Annie Ehman (among others).

Speeches focused on the provincial government’s failure to negotiate with teachers and it’s assault on collective bargaining through anti-worker legislation.

Throughout the rally there were repeated calls from the demonstrators for a general strike. News 1130 radio in Vancouver is reporting that “some unions are now talking about the idea of a general strike to support teachers in their fight. This would, in the opinion of many at the rally, bring the province to a standstill and hopefully get the government back to the bargaining table.”

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Seven Oaks Magazine has published two recent articles that examine the current BC teachers strike in the context of progressive labor struggles in BC and the broader neoliberal agenda aimed at enriching the few at the expense of the many.

“Why We Need to Support the Teachers of British Columbia”, by Lawrence Boxall.

“The Struggle for BC’s Future: The Importance of the BCTF Strike”, by Dale McCartney.

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The Globe and Mail

Teachers in contempt, B.C. judge concludes

British Columbia’s defiant public-school teachers were found in contempt of court late yesterday for their continuing province-wide illegal strike. After a rare Sunday hearing, Madam Justice Brenda Brown of the B.C. Supreme Court said citizens do not have the right to choose which court orders to obey and which to flout.

CTV

Teachers guilty of contempt says BC court

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has declared the province’s teachers in contempt of court. “No citizen or group of citizens may choose which orders they may obey,” said Justice Nancy Brown in issuing her ruling on Sunday. She had decided in favour of an application from the British Columbia Public School Employers Association.

Vancouver Sun

Teachers to defy contempt ruling; They won’t return to work despite court’s threat of fines
B.C.’s public school teachers vow to remain out on the picket line, despite a court ruling declaring their actions to be against the law and the threat of significant fines.

“The actions we’re taking do not signal any disrespect for the law,” Jinny Sims, president of the British Columbia Teachers’ Association, said Sunday after losing a legal battle in B.C. Supreme Court that hinged on the teachers’ right to strike.

The Daily News (Nanaimo)

Students sound off on strike

While the possibility of a teachers’ strike this fall has been known for months, Polita Rositano, a Grade 8 student at Woodlands Secondary School, said she was still caught off guard when teachers took to the picket lines Friday.
Teachers in contempt, B.C. judge concludes
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Monday, October 10, 2005 Posted at 4:59 AM EDT
From Monday’s Globe and Mail

Vancouver — British Columbia’s defiant public-school teachers were found in contempt of court late yesterday for their continuing province-wide illegal strike.

After a rare Sunday hearing, Madam Justice Brenda Brown of the B.C. Supreme Court said citizens do not have the right to choose which court orders to obey and which to flout.

“If one may breach a court order, so may another . . . and anarchy cannot be far behind,” Judge Brown told the court.

The contempt application was made by the province’s school boards, which had earlier filed a cease-and-desist order from the B.C. Labour Relations Board in the Supreme Court, giving it the legal effect of a court order.

After she found the teachers guilty of contempt, however, Judge Brown delayed a hearing until Thursday to determine what penalties should be handed out.

The delay, which was strongly opposed by lawyers for the school boards, gives the teachers a few more days to consider how far they want to continue their defiance before being punished.

It also virtually guarantees no school for more than 600,000 elementary and high-school students tomorrow and Wednesday.

But at the same time, Judge Brown warned: “I am hopeful that teachers are responsible citizens and they will pay attention to my ruling.”

Should the strike continue, heavy fines will almost certainly be applied to the striking teachers’ union, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. It is not anticipated that individual classroom instructors will be singled out for punishment.

BCTF president Jinny Sims wasted little time reasserting her union’s intention to stay off the job, despite yesterday’s contempt ruling.

Saying she was saddened by the decision, Ms. Sims said the teachers’ action is “in no way” intended to be disrespectful to the courts or the law.

“We are taking a stand against the unjust and punitive legislation of this government,” she declared. “Sometimes a law is bad, and we, as citizens, have to take a stand.”

Michael Hancock, meanwhile, a lawyer for the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, called the contempt of court ruling “a sad day for education in British Columbia. Hopefully, our teachers will now go back to work.”

More than 42,000 teachers began an indefinite strike last Friday to protest against Bill 12, a government bill imposing a two-year contract extension on them, with no wage increase and no improvement in their working conditions.

The bitter dispute seems certain to produce the most prolonged shutdown of the province’s public schools in more than 20 years.

Before Judge Brown issued her ruling, BCTF lawyer John Rogers argued that there was a history to the current dispute, which had seen the Liberal government restrict teachers’ right to strike by designating education as an essential service and strip them of the ability to negotiate working conditions.

“In 3½ years, the teachers have gone from full collective bargaining to no collective bargaining rights,” he said. “It’s important to understand why they determined it was necessary to take a stand.”

Mr. Rogers said the teachers’ illegal strike is in the tradition of civil disobedience against unjust laws.

“This is not a defence, but civil disobedience does exist.”

However, school board lawyer Nazeer Mitha said the teachers’ walkout is a far cry from noble struggles against evils such as segregation in the southern United States and apartheid.

“This deals with wages and working conditions,” he said. “Teachers may feel aggrieved, but that does not excuse their conduct and obligation to obey the law.

“There is no doubt the BCTF is in contempt of court, and it is flagrant, premeditated and deliberate.”

The issue, Mr. Mitha said, is not about all the various players in the current conflict. “It is about an order of this court. If the court is going to make an order, it has to be obeyed.”

Judge Brown agreed. “The issue before me is not whether the legislation is appropriate, or whether the teachers’ position is correct,” she ruled.

“It is about the obligation of every citizen to obey a court order.”

No talks have been scheduled among any of the many parties involved in the dispute.

With a report from Canadian Press
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The Vancouver Sun

Teachers to defy contempt ruling
They won’t return to work despite court’s threat of fines

Darah Hansen and Jonathan Fowlie
Vancouver Sun

Monday, October 10, 2005

B.C.’s public school teachers vow to remain out on the picket line, despite a court ruling declaring their actions to be against the law and the threat of significant fines.

“The actions we’re taking do not signal any disrespect for the law,” Jinny Sims, president of the British Columbia Teachers’ Association, said Sunday after losing a legal battle in B.C. Supreme Court that hinged on the teachers’ right to strike.

“Rather, we are engaging in a political protest against the provincial government and its unjust legislation. We strongly believe some laws are so unjust that we cannot stand by and allow them to go unchallenged,” Sims said.

Sunday afternoon B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ruled in a special hearing that the striking teachers are acting in contempt of a Labour Relations Board order, issued Thursday, that declared the job action illegal.

“No citizen or group of citizens may choose which rules they will obey,” the judge said.

Brown said her decision was not based on whether the legislation under protest by teachers is fair, or whether the teachers’ position in respect to the legislation is correct.

“The issue before me is both narrower — confined to the consideration of the breach of the [LRB] order on Oct. 6 — and wider — concerned with the obligations of every citizen to obey court orders and the implications for democratic society if citizens choose which orders they will obey and which they will breach,” she said.

“It is the rule of law, in this case obedience to court orders, which permits us to enjoy rights and liberties in a civilized and democratic society,” the judge said. “These are fragile social constructs which are seriously weakened when a group refuses to obey orders from the court. If one may breach a court order, so may another, leaving none of us with rights or privileges.”

“I am hopeful that the teachers, as responsible citizens, will appreciate the significance of what I’ve had to say today, and its significance for citizens at large where court orders are breached,” she said.

Just how much the teachers will pay out in penalties, however, will have to wait until Thursday when the court will hear submissions from lawyers for both the teachers’ union and their provincial employers.

According to lawyer Nazeer Mitha, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association will be seeking a monetary fine.

Mitha said ordering the arrest of the province’s 42,000 teachers was possible under law, but not practical.

“It would take more than all the police forces in this province to deal with this dispute,” he told the court Sunday.

Outside the court Sunday, Mike Hancock, general council for the employers’ association, said any penalty imposed should be stiff enough to get teachers to call off the strike.

“They [the union] are paying just about $2 million a day in strike pay, so the question is … what does it take to get their attention?” Hancock said.

Hancock said Sunday’s ruling represented “a sad day” for education in British Columbia — “that we’ve come to a point where our teachers’ union has been found in contempt of court.

“We hope the [teachers’ union] will hear the message the judge delivered today and will go back to work.”

Hancock added that the longer teachers’ remain on strike, the more serious the contempt will be considered.

Sims refused to discuss the union’s money situation Sunday, commenting only that the union has not asked for financial assistance from any other union at this time.

More than 90 per cent of union members voted last Wednesday to walk off the job in protest of Bill 12 — legislation introduced by the B.C. Liberals last week that will see a contract imposed on teachers until June 30, 2006. Picket lines went up around schools across the province Friday.

Sims said pickets will remain in place Tuesday, unless Labour Minister Mike de Jong agrees to sit down and negotiate a mutually agreeable contract with teachers.

The teachers are seeking to negotiate a cap on class sizes, improved working conditions and a 15-per-cent wage hike.

The teachers’ union is still holding out for a reversal of the original LRB ruling. An appeal of that order, which declared the strike to be illegal, is scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the board.

In his submissions to the court on behalf of the BCPSEA heard early in the day Sunday, Mitha argued that everyone must obey the law, “even if we have to hold our noses” at times.

Teachers, he said, are no different — and, in fact, must be held to a higher standard than others in society because they are expected to act as moral exemplar.

Mitha said there was “no doubt” the teachers’ union acted in contempt of court when it sanctioned a strike by its membership, and that the contempt was “flagrant, premeditated and deliberate.”

Meanwhile, John Rogers, lawyer for the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, argued teachers are merely practicing civil disobedience, a fundamental right in western democracies.

“In my summation, [the strike] is a reflection of how strongly teachers feel about what’s been imposed upon them that they have engaged in this conduct,” Rogers said.

Rogers further argued that while issues of wages and working conditions are not protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, they are still “fundamental circumstances of the human condition” and, therefore, worth fighting for.

dahansen@png.canwest.com

jfowlie@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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The Daily News (Nanaimo)
Monday » October 10 » 2005

Students sound off on strike

Robert Barron
The Daily News

Saturday, October 08, 2005

While the possibility of a teachers’ strike this fall has been known for months, Polita Rositano, a Grade 8 student at Woodlands Secondary School, said she was still caught off guard when teachers took to the picket lines Friday.

“There’s been talk of a strike at the school but I didn’t think it would happen so fast,” Polita said from her home Friday.

“While some of the students are happy the teachers went on strike, there’s also concern that if the strike goes on a long time, we’ll probably have to make up the time this summer. As well, some of the Grade 12 students are worried about their provincial exams if it’s a long strike.”

Asked how she felt about her teachers breaking the law and engaging in an illegal strike, Polita said she doesn’t like it.

“I think they’re doing it because they don’t like what they see happening with education in the province and they’re standing up for their rights, but I think they should have ‘waited it out’ a little longer before deciding to strike,” she said.

Other students in Nanaimo are standing firmly with the teachers in their job action, some even making their own picket signs and walking the picket lines.

Katherine Mitton and Mike Skoropad, students at Dufferin Crescent Elementary School, talked a group of their friends into joining their teachers Friday.

“We want to help them because they’re really good teachers and they need our help right now,” Katherine said.

“Our school needs smaller classes, more time for students in the library, better books and supplies and I think the teachers deserve a raise. Teachers rule and we need school.”

Asked if she felt teachers are setting a bad example for students by participating in an illegal strike, Katherine said she felt the teachers “have good reasons” for resorting to job action.

Will Murray, a Grade 8 student from Woodlands who spent eight years at Dufferin, said he thinks if anyone is setting a bad example for students in the issue it’s Gordon Campbell.

SEE ALSO

-Unions back teachers – A3

-Parents uneasy as teachers thumb nose at law – A3

-No end in sight – A7

© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2005

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Respect for the law

We have the utmost respect for the law and the judicial system so it is difficult to listen to this government tell teachers they should respect the law.

This is the same government that used the Legislature to rip up legally binding collective agreements.

This is the government that said it didn’t feel the need to follow a ruling by the International Labour Organization, a United Nations body composed of representatives of government, business, and labour. The ILO ruled that the BC Liberal law declaring education an “essential service” should be repealed. The ruling also called on the government to open talks with the BCTF to negotiate an agreement and to refrain from imposing settlements in the future.

This is a government that will not even allow teachers to exercise their limited rights provided by the BC Liberals own “essential service” legislation. The government didn’t even wait for the Labour Relations Board to rule on what constituted “essential services” for education. After only three days of teachers undertaking minimal actions such as refusing to exchange papers with AOs, the government introduced Bill 12 to bring teachers to heel.

This is the government that after losing a decision in court simply turned around and legislated what the courts had just ruled was fundamentally flawed. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation challenged the decisions of government-appointed arbitrator Eric Rice in the B.C. Supreme Court and won. January 22, 2004, Justice D.W. Shaw concluded that Rice’s ruling contained “fundamental” errors on “points of law that are of importance to the education system of British Columbia, including the teachers, the school boards and the students.” However, the BC Liberals introduced Bill 19, and made that fundamentally flawed ruling a new law.

This is the government that overturned arbitrated settlements for doctors and provincial court prosecutors because it didn’t like the results.

This is not a government to be lecturing people about respect for the law.

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CUPE backs teachers

Delegates to CUPE’s national convention representing 540,000 CUPE members today voted unanimously to support the BC Teachers’ Federation in its ongoing dispute with the provincial Liberal government.

The resolution, a response to Monday’s announcement of Bill 12 (Teachers’ Collective Agreement Act), commits the national union, its BC division and the Hospital Employees’ Union (the health services division of CUPE in B.C.) to undertake “whatever actions deemed necessary” to provide the BCTF with all the support it requests.

BC Carpenters support teachers

BC teachers have given their negotiating committee an 88 per cent mandate to initiate job action in a province-wide strike vote. Planned strike action is aimed at pressuring the employer and the government to negotiate a new collective agreement. Teachers have worked without a contract since the last one expired in June of 2004.

Other unions/organizations supporting BC Teachers

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Canadian Press:

BC Students to remain out of classes Tuesday as teachers strike continues

Students at British Columbia’s public schools will remain out of classes Tuesday as striking teachers ask the Labour Relations Board to reconsider a ruling their strike is illegal. A spokeswoman from the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said classes would not resume while the board considers the application scheduled to be heard Tuesday. The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association was heading to court Friday afternoon to ask for an enforcement order of the board’s ruling.

The Province:

BC news update: Teachers strike

The Public School Employers Association will present a contempt of court application to B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nancy Brown today. The association is making the application after teachers walked off the job on Friday in an illegal strike. The association wants the court to enforce a Labour Relations Board ruling that the strike is illegal in attempt to force the teachers back to work. B.C.’s 42,000 teachers want a 15-per-cent wage increase over three years.

Parents on picket lines
Parent Lori Goldie’s sign succinctly summarizes her view on the teachers’ strike, which she says her son, Kyle, who has cerebral palsy, is taking very hard, as he ‘lives for school.’
Teachers weren’t the only ones to hit the picket lines Friday. Angry parents and supportive students also walked the line with signs, airing their views on the walkout by B.C.’s 42,000 teachers.

National Post:

BC teachers’ illegal strike continues; Union faces heavy fines
The British Columbia teachers’ strike appears set to drag on into next week, barring a surprise move by either side this weekend. The province’s 42,000 teachers did not report for work yesterday and they say they will remain out until the government negotiates a contract that guarantees improvements to classroom conditions, restores their collective bargaining rights and provides them with a raise.

The Province

Angry B.C. parents lash out at teachers
PICKET LINES: But students provide support to teachers

Elaine O’Connor
The Province

Sunday, October 09, 2005

CREDIT: Les Bazso, The Province
Parent Lori Goldie’s sign succinctly summarizes her view on the teachers’ strike, which she says her son, Kyle, who has cerebral palsy, is taking very hard, as he ‘lives for school.’
Teachers weren’t the only ones to hit the picket lines Friday.

Angry parents and supportive students also walked the line with signs, airing their views on the walkout by B.C.’s 42,000 teachers.

Abbotsford parent Lori Goldie was so fed up with the job action that she went to her son’s school Friday to picket teachers with a sign of her own.

It read: “Teachers: My child is not your leverage tool to get what you want.”

Goldie broke down in tears as she described the impact of the strike on her son, who has cerebral palsy.

“It’s his life. He lives for school. This isn’t fair to my son,” said Goldie, whose son Kyle, 15, is in Grade 10 at W.J. Mouat Secondary.

“I’m angry. I want teachers back in the classroom teaching children.”

She said teachers should wait for a raise like other public sector workers.

“I know all about cutbacks. I’ve lived with them for 15 years, with my own child,” she said.

“The government has asked for one lousy year [of a wage freeze].”

Goldie said many passersby assumed she was picketing with teachers. But those who read her sign honked and clapped, she says.

The other side of her placard read: “Teachers: you claim the government is bullying you: what do you call your own behavior? The only difference is you’re using children.”

But on the other side of the street, teachers were getting a very different message.

W.J. Mouat students Robbi McIntosh, in Grade 12, and Danielle MacDonald, in Grade 11, marched proudly with teachers on the line to back their fight for a negotiated contract.

“As much as I am concerned about my grades and everything because of missing school, I understand why there is a strike. It’s the only way for teachers to be heard and taken seriously,” said McIntosh, 17.

She said she has watched her teachers work hard through recess, lunch, after school and on weekends, coaching, tutoring and marking and thought they deserved better.

“I think they are very underpaid for what they do.”

Both McIntosh and Goldie plan to be on the line at the school again Tuesday to make sure students’ and parents’ voices are heard.

eoconnor@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2005
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Sunday » October 9 » 2005

B.C. teachers’ illegal strike continues
Union faces heavy fines

Jeff Rud
CanWest News Service

Saturday, October 08, 2005

CREDIT: Ray Smith, CanWest News Service
Striking teachers form a picket line outside Victoria High School in Victoria, B.C.
VICTORIA – The British Columbia teachers’ strike appears set to drag on into next week, barring a surprise move by either side this weekend.

The province’s 42,000 teachers did not report for work yesterday and they say they will remain out until the government negotiates a contract that guarantees improvements to classroom conditions, restores their collective bargaining rights and provides them with a raise.

B.C.’s Liberal government yesterday passed the Teachers’ Collective Agreement Act, which sparked the walkout.

The new law imposes a contract extension on teachers until June, 2006, with no wage increase or change to other conditions.

Passage of the act was not easy, however. It came late yesterday afternoon, after an all-night session at the legislature as the Opposition NDP exercised its full entitlement to speaking time on the bill.

After an application by the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association on Thursday, the province’s Labour Relations Board ruled the teachers’ walkout illegal and ordered “the union, its officers, members, employees and agents to immediately refrain from declaring or authorizing a strike against the schools.”

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation faces the possibility of heavy fines if it continues to defy the ruling. But the BCTF has appealed the ruling of the labour board.

The BCTF said yesterday that teachers would not return to work on Tuesday, when the Labour Relations Board is scheduled to hear the union’s appeal of the ruling.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong warned the BCTF and its teachers to obey the law and return to classrooms. He told reporters he was not planning to meet with the union this weekend.

“I know teachers are angry. I know they are upset when a contract is derived out of a process like this,” Mr. de Jong said. “But that’s what’s happened, unfortunately, too many times in the past. It’s happened again. Teachers need to set an example and they need to go back to work and they need to abide by the law.”

NDP leader Carole James said the government is to blame for the dispute, which has put more than 600,000 students out of school.

Schools were open yesterday, but parents were told not to send their children.

“We’re here because the government created this confrontation,” Ms. James said. “There was an opportunity until the passage of the bill for the government to back down, to sit down with the teachers … and the government didn’t make an effort to sit down with the teachers.”

© National Post 2005

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The Globe and Mail:

BC teachers strike; parents told to keep children home
More than half a million British Columbia public school students were asked to stay home Friday after the province’s teachers launched a wildcat strike to protest government plans to impose a two-year contract on them.

What can they do to 40,000 teachers; School employers go to court, union stands firm in first full day of illegal strike
Teachers walked the picket lines, the NDP filibustered in Victoria and the school employers went to court yesterday in the first day of an illegal strike by the province’s 42,000 teachers.

BC Notebook: Collective bargaining is a difficult, sophisticated art
‘Ahem!” That’s the sound of an aging, former labour reporter — me –getting ready to weigh in on the fractious teachers’ dispute.

Campbell’s government helped create mess for BC’s teachers
In theory, governments do not give in to hostage takers. Negotiate, yes. Capitulate, no. If you give in to one group it only encourages others.

Vancouver Sun:

Teachers’ strike to last at least to Tuesday; Both sides approach LRB over its ruling that walkout is illegal
Students at B.C.’s public schools are expected to remain out of classes Tuesday as striking teachers and their government employers continue legal manoeuvers in support of their opposing positions.B.C. teachers strike; parents told to keep children home
By TERRY WEBER
Friday, October 7, 2005 Posted at 2:17 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update

More than half a million British Columbia public school students were asked to stay home Friday after the province’s teachers launched a wildcat strike to protest government plans to impose a two-year contract on them.

Web sites for school districts around the province Friday said that, although in many cases schools would remain open, classes would be cancelled and proper supervision would likely not be available for students.

“”Teachers are on strike,” The Vancouver School Board said.

“The Vancouver School Board cannot provide adequate supervision at its school facilities and as a result, parents [or] guardians are advised to keep their children at home until teachers return to the classroom.”

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Similar messages were posted for school boards in other regions of the province.

Picket lines went up around B.C. public schools Friday after the 42,000 members of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation voted 90.5 per cent to stage a protest against provincial legislation that would impose a two-year contract on teachers, providing no wage increase and offering what they say is no improvement in working conditions.

Televised images showed educators carrying pickets even before the sun came up.

The job action came despite an 11th-hour ruling from the B.C. Labour Relations Board, which deemed the strike illegal.

In an interim order, the labour board told the union to halt strike plans and urged teachers to resume their duties and work schedules immediately.

B.C. Teachers Federation president Jinny Sims said the union would ask the Labour Relations Board to re-consider the ruling, calling it flawed.

The decision followed meetings between labour officials and B.C. Labour Minister Mike de Jong earlier Thursday, which failed to resolve the dispute.

The B.C. legislature, meanwhile, was continuing a marathon sitting Friday to debate the controversial legislation imposing the teachers’ contract. The bill has yet to get second reading. Mr. de Jong has suggested the house will sit as long as it takes to pass the bill.

The strike affects about 600,000 students. Unionized support workers at B.C. schools were also expected to honour the picket lines.

Teachers and school boards began provincewide bargaining in 1993 and haven’t since been able to reach an agreement without provincial government intervention.

With Canadian Press

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The Globe and Mail
‘What can they do to 40,000 teachers?’
School employers go to court, union stands firm in first full day of illegal strike
By PETTI FONG
Saturday, October 8, 2005 Page S3

VANCOUVER — Teachers walked the picket lines, the NDP filibustered in Victoria and the school employers went to court yesterday in the first day of an illegal strike by the province’s 42,000 teachers.

The provincial Liberals, after waiting out an all-night delay tactic by the NDP, passed the legislation that imposed a settlement on the province’s teachers, who have been without a contract since July, 2004.

The school employers went to B.C. Supreme Court late yesterday to have the Labour Relations Board ruling that found the strike illegal enforced, which would result in fines for picketing.

The teachers are appealing the LRB ruling.

“We have to stand up to bad laws,” said Libby Griffin, a teacher at inner-city elementary school Florence Nightingale. “We will face the consequences if they come. What can they do to 40,000 teachers?”

The long-simmering dispute between teachers and the provincial government erupted into full-scale job action after what many teachers called an insulting challenge to their democratic rights when the Liberals introduced legislation imposing a contract.

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation already had an 88-per-cent strike vote, but after the government ordered an end to the dispute, another vote was organized for teachers to decide whether to defy that legislation. Just over 90 per cent voted in favour of setting up pickets.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong said the situation exists because the teachers’ employers, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, is in charge of negotiating a contract, but the funding agent is the province.

“So there is this tension and this link that exists whereby an employer charged with negotiating a contract and fulfilling the terms of that contract has to take very serious account of funds that it has little control over the flow of,” said Mr. de Jong in the legislature yesterday. “As the funding agent, the provincial government of the day has a very significant role. If you look at the recent history of this, much of the tension that has characterized these negotiations is attributable to that division or that divide, in my view at least.”

Mr. de Jong said the bill ordering teachers back is necessary because after days of debate, it has become clear that free collective bargaining will not achieve an agreement.

NDP education critic John Horgan said the government could solve the problem by increasing funding for teachers.

“The Minister of Finance can vary the mandate of BCPSEA by providing resources to provide wage increases for educators in British Columbia. That is something that can happen today,” he said. “It could have happened before this bill. It should have happened before this bill.”

The BCTF has vowed to stay off the job until teachers agree to a settlement, which means picket lines will likely be up again on Tuesday after the Thanksgiving holiday.

BCTF president Jinny Sims said she’s forgoing her long weekend at home in Nanaimo and staying in Vancouver to put more pressure on the government to resume negotiations.

Ms. Sims scoffed at the government’s appointment of labour mediator Vince Ready to look at new bargaining structures for teachers and school employers.

“Right now, the trust we have in this government’s ability to come up with structures to meet our needs is very low,” she said. “You don’t look for long-term solution in the middle of a crisis. In the middle of a crisis, you deal with the crisis.”

Kim Howland, president of the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, also urged that a long-term and more permanent solution be found between the school employers and teachers.

The BCTF wants to negotiate classroom composition, wages and resources. The government does not want class size in the collective bargaining and will not budge from the 0-per-cent wage increase it has given other public-sector workers.

Teacher Shanda Stirk, who was on the picket line yesterday, said she’s willing to compromise. While a wage increase is needed, a bigger priority is limiting class sizes and providing better resources, she said.

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B.C. NOTEBOOK
Collective bargaining is a difficult, sophisticated art
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Saturday, October 8, 2005 Page S3

‘Ahem!” That’s the sound of an aging, former labour reporter — me –getting ready to weigh in on the fractious teachers’ dispute.

Here goes.

First, a memo to both sides. Be very, very careful. This is not a time for grandstanding about the need to respect the law nor about a willingness to defy the law. It is a time for leadership, to accept that solutions sometimes involve pain, the hurt of having to abandon heartfelt positions.

But the government should understand that when the people who teach our children feel so aggrieved they vote more than 90 per

It is not enough to demand that teachers obey the law. There is a history to this dispute. The government has been targeting teachers and their union, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, since the Liberals took office in 2001.

The Liberals have placed the teachers under essential-services laws (the only government in Canada to do so), taken away their right to negotiate classroom conditions and, now, with Bill 12, imposed two successive contracts on them by government fiat.

None of this gets the BCTF off the hook, however.

The tough organization has yet to demonstrate that it knows how to compromise realistically and close a deal. Collective bargaining is a difficult, sophisticated art where you achieve what is achievable and move on. It is more than issuing demands, no matter how justified.

The teachers are right when they say this dispute needs a solution. One hopes they will recognize that solution if it comes along.

Late-night crooner

The NDP’s exhausting legislative filibuster against Bill 12 had its moments. The highlight, or maybe the lowlight, may have been Corky Evans’ effort to sing the last verse of Woody Guthrie’s well-known ballad Pretty Boy Floyd some time after 5 a.m.

The homespun New Democrat MLA from Nelson serenaded bleary-eyed legislators in his croaking rasp: “Now, as through this world I’ve rambled, I’ve met lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a shotgun, and some with a fountain pen.”

Shortly after that, the legislative lights went out.

Earlier, fresh-faced Gregor Robertson of the NDP, he of Happy Planet juice fame, had a tough grammatical start to his speech.

Mr. Robertson thanked all the teachers “who got me here . . . through my youth, through my formative years, who inspired me, who motivated me, who raised me up good.”

Well, at least he didn’t say “real good.”

Dodging the question

It’s a bit disappointing to see the inestimable Carole Taylor turn into just another politician.

The NDP had a simple, straightforward question for the B.C. Finance Minister: How much did the government pay for the full-page ads extolling Bill 12 that appeared in newspapers across the province the morning after the bill was introduced?

Easy, right? Apparently not. Ms. Taylor said she could not give an answer until public accounts are presented eight months from now, or just about the time the teachers’ newly imposed contract is due to expire.

No mystery why Ms. Taylor fudged. The Liberals know the NDP would jump on the figure and accuse the government of having money for propaganda but not for teacher-librarians, etc.

But it was a legitimate question and deserved better.

Corporate courage?

What was all that fuss about Concert Properties’ alleged conflict of interest in expressing official interest to build the first phase of the Olympic Village as part of the Southeast False Creek Project?

Concert principal Jack Poole is also chairman of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), but the entire project, including selecting the developer, is now the city’s responsibility, not VANOC’s.

Concert’s interest was hardly secret. The developer was one of five firms listed in a city press release the day before the story was headlined in the newspapers. Rather than dodging the issue, the press release even referred to the conflict-of-interest issue, arguing it would not apply because the city had taken over the project.

When the political fur began to fly the next day, however, Concert dropped out. So much for corporate courage.

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The Globe and Mail

Campbell’s government helped create mess for B.C.’s teachers

By GARY MASON
Saturday, October 8, 2005 Page A14

VICTORIA — In theory, governments do not give in to hostage takers. Negotiate, yes. Capitulate, no. If you give in to one group it only encourages others.

So it will be interesting to see how the B.C. government deals with the unusual hostage crisis it has on its hands right now. The province’s 42,000 teachers have walked off the job illegally and have taken more than a half million students with them.

It is difficult to see how the B.C. Teachers’ Federation wins this one. As mentioned, governments, in principle, have not been known to back down from battles with groups that have resorted to breaking the law to achieve their demands.

First, it establishes a terrible precedent and, secondly and more importantly, it undermines and eats away at the government’s credibility with its broader citizenry.

The BCTF has other problems, too.

Firstly, its chief political ally, the New Democratic Party, is against the walkout. NDP Leader Carole James said this week that every member of the public is expected to obey the law and teachers are no different.

On top of that, both Ms. James and her party’s education critic, John Horgan, acknowledged this week that B.C. has the best education system in North America. If that’s the case, what’s all the fuss about?

The BCTF is counting on the support of its brothers and sisters in other unions, both private and public sector. And while the leaders of those unions are saying all the right things now, you have to wonder how much support the rank and file have for a group that is generally viewed to be well-paid, has its summers off and enjoys one of the best pension plans in the country.

Teachers are also fighting a zero-per-cent wage offer for last year and this year that other public-sector unions have accepted. Are those workers who have swallowed zero going to refuse to cross picket lines and possibly lose wages to support a group that won’t? Members of other unions also have children in school and will, like most parents, have to make alternative child-care arrangements for each day the strikes drags on. Whatever sympathy they have for the teachers will quickly dissipate amid the frustration of having to use up vacation time to stay home with the kids.

The first polls are out and, not surprisingly, they show little support for the illegal job action. While the public is angry with the government for once again imposing a contract on a group it feels has legitimate issues, it does not believe breaking the law is the answer.

This is another problem the BCTF has.

Finally, there is the financial crunch the union will face when it begins getting hit with mounting fines for each day teachers remain off the job in defiance of the law. It’s a bill that could quickly reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where will that money come from? With so much going against the teachers, it would seem all the government has to do is wait for them to crumble. But that’s not quite the case.

While the public has no time for illegal job action, it does believe teachers have legitimate grievances that need to be addressed. Those issues centre on class size and class composition, which concerns the number of children with challenges, be they physical, mental or otherwise, who are in general classroom settings.

These two areas became flashpoints when provisions around them were stripped from the teachers’ contract by the Liberals in 2002. Despite knowing that problems associated with these areas were not going away, the Liberals did nothing about them. And so, to some extent, the government brought the current situation on itself.

The government’s decision to hammer the teachers once again with a legislated contract has done nothing to dispel its sometimes dogmatic, imperious and, frankly, illiberal image. An image the Liberals are desperate to change before the next election when they will face a rejuvenated NDP led by an increasingly appealing leader carving out her own image as a passionate conciliator.

For this reason I believe the Liberals will assist the BCTF with an exit strategy of some sort. That is, a way for teachers to put down the picket signs while saving face. But how does the government do this without acceding to the demands of a group of lawbreakers? Perhaps it comes in the form of a promise — but not a firm guarantee in terms of numbers — to address the class size and class composition issues in a real way. Maybe the matter is handed over to a non-partisan committee to investigate with any agreed-upon findings being part of the next contract, which will be up at the end of the school year.

I’m not sure if that’s the answer, but the Liberals have to do something. After all, they helped create this mess.

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The Vancouver Sun

Teachers’ strike to last at least to Tuesday
Both sides approach LRB over its ruling that walkout is illegal

Darah Hansen and Camille Bains
Vancouver Sun and Canadian Press; with files from Maurice Bridge and Jenny Lee, Vancouver Sun; with Jeff Rud, CanWest News Service

October 8, 2005

A group of Grade 10 students at Vancouver’s Templeton secondary school joined teachers on the picket line to support their strike.
To listen to story, click link .

Students at B.C.’s public schools are expected to remain out of classes Tuesday as striking teachers and their government employers continue legal manoeuvers in support of their opposing positions.

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation executive asked the Labour Relations Board early Friday to reconsider a ruling that declared their strike illegal. That application is scheduled to be considered by the board Tuesday.

Sunday morning, meanwhile, the B.C. Supreme Court will convene to consider an application filed Friday by the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association that asks the court to enforce the LRB ruling, in an attempt to force the province’s 42,000 teachers back to work.

Picket lines went up at daybreak Friday — the first day of a walkout that kept more than 600,000 students from classes.

Teachers are angry with legislation that freezes their wages and extends their contract until next June. The legislation was passed Friday afternoon after an overnight debate in the B.C. Legislature.

Premier Gordon Campbell said the teachers’ job action is illegal and has been sanctioned by their union.

“Every teacher will make their decision about whether they want to follow the direction of their union with regard to whether they’re going to take illegal action or not,” Campbell said.

“There’ll be sanctions for those actions and I think it’s a shame.”

Teachers on the picket line Friday said public support for the strike was strong.

“Today, the honking has been phenomenal, and then someone will quietly walk by and say, ‘Thank you very much,'” said Libby Griffin, a music and Grade 3 teacher at Florence Nightingale elementary in East Vancouver.

“And last night we just happened to have a meet-the-teacher night at our school and we had parents who were in tears because they felt that we were doing such a fine job with their children.”

At Sir Charles Tupper secondary in Vancouver, two Grade 9 students showed up on the picket line to sing a song of support for their teachers.

“They [teachers] are doing all they can to help get us back in school so we can get a better education,” said student Megan Solis.

Cab driver Nick Dehal said that although his kids are no longer in school, he supports teachers “150 per cent.”

“They are the nation-builders and if (Premier) Gordon Campbell has surplus money, he should give it to them,” he said.

Tuesday, however, could be a different story as working parents of young children face a potential child-care crunch. In Vancouver, child-care providers expect space to be at a premium.

Sports activities on school fields this weekend are scheduled to go ahead as usual, but activities such as adult education classes in centres attached to some schools could be affected by the strike.

B.C. labour leaders rallied on the picket line at Van Tech high school in Vancouver Friday morning. BCTF president Jinny Sims, who later attended at a regular meeting of the executive council of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said the labour movement stands firmly behind the federation.

“I’m so proud of our members,” she said. “They’re determined, they’re resolved and they know that they are taking a stand against an unjust piece of legislation.”

In a separate news conference held later outside an elementary school, Sims said teachers won’t apologize for breaking the law, and compared their stand to the women’s suffrage movement and the fight for aboriginal rights.

“Sometimes our government’s laws are just wrong and they’re unjust and that’s when it’s up to the citizens to take a stand and say, ‘Enough is enough, these are unjust laws and we’re not going to take it any more,'” she said.

Sims said it is up to provincial government to make the next move. “There’s no change from our perspective,” Sims said late Friday. “We’re still waiting to hear back from government.”

Labour federation president Jim Sinclair agreed the next move is up to the province.

“I think all of British Columbia is looking to Victoria, because I think most of us understand that if Victoria doesn’t come to the table over the weekend, then next week doesn’t look very good,” he said.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong told reporters in Victoria Friday he wasn’t planning to meet with the teachers’ union this weekend.

“I know teachers are angry. I know they are upset when a contract is derived out of a process like this,” de Jong said. “But that’s what’s happened, unfortunately, too many times in the past. It’s happened again. Teachers need to set an example and they need to go back to work and they need to abide by the law.”

The teachers’ union could be hit with steep fines and its executive members could even be threatened with jail time over the walkout should the B.C. Supreme Court enforce the LRB ruling.

Teachers said they are prepared to take what comes.

“What can they do to 40,000 teachers?” said Shanda Stirk, a resource teacher at Florence Nightingale elementary. “That’s why we stand united and we’re all together and we’ll face the consequences if they come.”

On Wednesday teachers voted 90.5 per cent in favour of setting up picket lines to protest the government’s legislation that freezes their wages until next June.

Teachers had demanded a 15-per-cent wage increase over three years while the government offered zero as part of its public-sector wage policy.

B.C. teachers have been subjected to imposed contracts four times since 1993.

dahansen@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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Public schools were shut down across British Columbia today, as 42,000 teachers walked off their jobs. Teachers have been angered over the Liberal government’s removal of their right to negotiate class size, their inclusion under essential-services labor legislation and two successive government-imposed contracts. They are also upset over the impact of funding shortfalls on education, which teachers say have caused a deterioration in classroom learning conditions.

Here are links to today’s stories:

The Globe and Mail: “Teachers to strike in BC
Public schools across British Columbia are shut to students today as the province’s 42,000 teachers begin an indefinite strike in defiance of government legislation imposing a new two-year contract on them.

The Globe and Mail: BCTF president not afraid to take stand against “flawed” laws”
British Columbia Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims, who holds a black belt in judo, is ready for a fight and prepared to go to jail. When the province’s 42,000 teachers walk off the job today, Ms. Sims said she knows the consequences of defying a government-imposed contract.

Global National and Canadian Press: BCTF begins indefinite strike
Picket lines went up early Friday at British Columbia schools on the first day of a planned walkout by teachers that kept more than 600,000 students from classes. The pickets were in evidence despite a ruling against the walkout only hours before by the B.C. Labour Relations Board.

The Daily News: BCTF dispute reminiscent of pre-Thacter England
Watching this labour dispute with the BCTF unfolding under Nanaimo’s own Ginny Sims, it’s like watching a Pre-Thatcher era labour dispute in Britain, where the country was paralyzed by labour for decades and Britain was the standing joke of Europe.The Globe and Mail
Teachers to strike in British Columbia
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Friday, October 7, 2005 Page A10
With a report from Petti Fong

VANCOUVER — Public schools across British Columbia are shut to students today as the province’s 42,000 teachers begin an indefinite strike in defiance of government legislation imposing a new two-year contract on them.

The teachers’ walkout follows an overwhelming 90.5-per-cent membership vote in favour of such action and the apparent failure of a meeting yesterday in Victoria between Labour Minister Mike de Jong and the province’s top labour leaders.

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims, who was also at the Victoria meeting, said the union is not deterred by the prospect of striking illegally to press its demands for improved learning conditions and a wage increase.

“Our members took a vote, knowing the legislation could be proclaimed today [Thursday], knowing there could be injunctions, knowing there could be fines and knowing that we are going to be threatened by all sorts of things,” Ms. Sims said before the meeting.

“But, knowing all this, our members said they are prepared to take a stand and they are prepared to live with the consequences.”

Teachers have staged one-day protest walkouts in the past, but this time, there is no timetable for a return to work, leaving parents not knowing when their children may be back at school.

The B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association applied to the provincial labour board late yesterday for a declaration that the teachers’ threatened walkout is illegal and they should report for duty today.

But this is expected to have no effect on the teachers’ plans to set up picket lines outside the province’s 1,666 public schools, giving more than half a million students an early start to the holiday Thanksgiving weekend.

Unionized school-support workers are certain to respect the teachers’ picket lines.

Ms. Sims said union negotiators are prepared to bargain around the clock to settle the bitter dispute, but no talks were scheduled.

Mr. de Jong said it is difficult to negotiate if members of the BCTF are on an illegal strike.

“When you’re a law-abiding citizen, you don’t get to pick and choose which laws you want to abide by,” he told reporters in Victoria.

“This is not the kind of example you would expect from people who are teaching our children.”

However, Mr. de Jong did not the close the door to the prospect of talks over the weekend.

There is also the intriguing possibility that veteran labour mediator Vince Ready could become involved in trying to break the logjam.

Mr. Ready, with a long history of helping resolve difficult contract disputes, was appointed by Mr. de Jong yesterday as an industrial inquiry commissioner (IIC) to recommend a new bargaining structure for the teachers and school trustees.

Since teachers and school boards began provincewide bargaining in 1993, they have not reached an agreement without government intervention. Given his successful track record, most recently in ending an illegal strike by B.C. ferry workers, and his new role as an IIC, involving Mr. Ready would appear to be a natural next step.

All sides, including officers with the B.C. Federation of Labour, are likely to be available during the weekend for any attempt to prevent the teachers’ strike from going into next week.

“Nothing is set up, but there needs to be a table where all these things can be sorted out,” said one officer. Teachers and their union are liable to heavy penalties if they persist with their illegal strike.

The Hospital Employees’ Union was fined $150,000 after hospital workers staged a three-day illegal walkout. The union is also facing a class-action suit financed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation on behalf of patients.

Complicating the crisis is the history of bad blood between the teachers and the Liberal government.

Teachers have been angered over the Liberals’ removal of their right to negotiate class size, their inclusion under essential-services labour legislation and two successive government-imposed contracts.

They are also upset over the impact of funding shortfalls on education, which teachers say have caused a deterioration in classroom learning conditions.

“The message from teachers is that they are prepared to put themselves on the line to restore learning conditions and to defend their rights to free collective bargaining,” Ms. Sims said.

Bill 12 imposes a two-year wage freeze on members of the BCTF, who are seeking 15 per cent over three years, and no improvement in working conditions.

Reaction to the strike among some trustees and parents was mixed.

Allan Wong, vice-chair of the Vancouver School Board, called on the provincial government to restore the teachers’ right to a freely negotiated agreement.

“When almost 91 per cent of the province’s teachers vote to take such action, the government needs to realize that these professionals have been deeply offended,” said Mr. Wong, in a statement.

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The Globe and Mail
Federation president not afraid to take stand against ‘flawed’ laws
By PETTI FONG
Friday, October 7, 2005 Page S1

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims, who holds a black belt in judo, is ready for a fight and prepared to go to jail.

When the province’s 42,000 teachers walk off the job today, Ms. Sims said she knows the consequences of defying a government-imposed contract.

“Our teachers know what the legislation means. They’re saying that there are some laws that are so bad, so flawed you have to take a stand,” she said. “They could threaten us with fines. They could even threaten to put me in jail.”

In a secret ballot this week, teachers voted by more than 90 per cent to defy the B.C. Liberals’ imposed settlement, a decision that Ms. Sims said makes her proud to be a teacher and proud to lead the membership.

The former president of the Nanaimo District Teachers’ Association hadn’t planned on becoming a teacher. Ms. Sims originally wanted to be a pilot, but a height restriction forced her to choose an alternative career, and she has never regretted becoming a teacher.

She made history on a number of levels when she was elected to head the teachers’ federation in March, 2004.

Ms. Sims became the first Indo-Canadian woman elected president of the union, and joining her in the top executive positions were two other women, making it the first time that the people in the highest-ranking spots were female.

Three-quarters of the BCTF are women, but since the federation’s inception in 1917, only five women before Ms. Sims held the president’s seat.

Ms. Sims is following the tradition of seeing her role as protecting the rights of students and teachers, said former BCTF president Neil Worboys.

“When I was president, the call was the same. We wanted to have learning conditions that were good for our students and the ability to bargain that. So, everything that Jinny is passionate about is aptly representing the membership of the federation.”

Mr. Worboys said the government has tried to play down how much support Ms. Sims has among the rank and file, but the recent high turnouts by teachers to vote — a strike mandate of 88 per cent and a 90-per-cent approval to walk off the job — prove that most teachers are behind the BCTF leader.

However, parent Tessie Wallace, who is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said she has mixed feelings about Ms. Sims’s strong stand.

Ms. Wallace, who has children attending high school in Nanaimo, said that if the issue were just about class composition, she would be more empathetic.

But many other unions have zero increases and even wage rollbacks, she said.

“They’re not asking teachers to take a rollback, the government is saying there is not enough money for a raise,” Ms. Wallace said.

“I do understand that as a union, as workers, they should have the right to express their misgivings, but they are holding kids hostages.”

Ms. Wallace, who is a noon-hour supervisor, said her union has told members not to cross the picket line, a position she opposes, citing her right to do her job.

When teachers set up picket lines today, some of the children who won’t be able to go to school include Ms. Sims’s grandchildren. Three of them attend elementary schools.

Ms. Sims was born in India, and emigrated with her family to England when she was 9. Punjabi is her first language and she struggled to learn English, but by her teens she was active and an athlete, competing in fencing and earning a black belt in judo.

In university at Manchester, she met her future husband, Stephen Sims, who was also studying to be a teacher. Their cross-cultural relationship, she remembers, was so unusual that the couple brought traffic to a halt.

Her union involvement began with the National Union of Teachers in Britain and she continued that activism after the family immigrated to Canada in 1975.

In Nanaimo, where they settled, Ms. Sims taught social studies, English and fencing. She last taught at Dover Bay Secondary School.

Kirsty Harrington, a parent adviser for the school, said Ms. Sims was a very pleasant teacher. But she does not agree with the job action. Students, particularly in high school, will face serious setbacks with any loss of education time, she said.

Ms. Harrington instructed her daughter to take home all her binders, course notes and books from school yesterday in preparation for a lengthy strike.

“It’s devastating because they can’t afford to miss one single day,” Ms. Harrington said. “Students who have provincial exams are going to be hurt.”

But other parents back the teachers. Linda Vass, chair of Ballenas Secondary School in Nanaimo, said she supports Ms. Sims’s actions.

“She has made a good point that teachers are not being heard,” she said.

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BCTF begins ‘indefinite’ strike

Global National with Canadian Press

October 7, 2005

CREDIT: Richard Lam, Canadian Press
Karin Bernauer, of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association, prepares strike kits for individual schools for today’s walkout of B.C.’s 42,000 teachers.

CREDIT: Richard Lam, Canadian Press
Templeton high school students (from left) Samantha Campbell, Ellen Sandover and Megan Berg leave the school Thursday after making a banner in support of the teachers’ planned walkout.
VANCOUVER (CP) — Picket lines went up early Friday at British Columbia schools on the first day of a planned walkout by teachers that kept more than 600,000 students from classes.

The pickets were in evidence despite a ruling against the walkout only hours before by the B.C. Labour Relations Board.

GLOBAL NATIONAL REPORTS
» Weekend Anchor Tara Nelson reports
However, the president of the B.C. Teachers Federation, Jinny Sims, said the union would ask the Labour Relations Board to re-consider the ruling, calling it flawed.

Members of the teachers union are in a battle over government legislation that imposes a wage-freeze contract on them. The union contends its action is a protest against that legislation.

Sims has said teachers will not go back to school until they gain a new deal with the government that addresses collective bargaining rights, includes a wage hike and commitment to smaller class sizes.

The union representing 42,000 teachers could be hit with steep fines and executive members could even be threatened with jail time over the scheduled walkout.

Late Thursday, the Labour Relations Board told teachers to immediately resume their duties and work schedules, and ordered them to refrain from picketing at or near schools. It also told the union to refrain from declaring or authorizing a strike.

Labour leaders and Labour Minister Mike de Jong met Thursday but didn’t resolve the impasse.

A marathon sitting of the house was debating Bill 12 on Friday, the controversial legislation that imposes a contract on the teachers.

Government house leader Mike de Jong says the legislature will sit as long as it takes to pass the bill, which has yet to get second reading.

NDP MLA Corky Evans said the government wants to hold the line on teachers’ salaries despite running up a billion-dollar surplus, and he noted the Liberal government came up with a tax break for corporations in the recent mini-budget.

The president of the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils says children are once again being used as pawns.

Council head Kim Howland said there was concern and confusion from parents as they scrambled to find care and pay for that care while their kids out are of school.

She said she hopes a new mechanism can be found to end the animosity between the teachers’ union and public school employers.

In Victoria, teacher Brian Dallamore hit the picket line early.

“I tend to be, personally, quite a lawful, law-abiding person,” the 27-year teaching veteran said.

“But there are times when you have to take a stand. That’s what civil disobedience is all about.”

Grade 7 teacher Karl Brodsgaard said he and his partner have only a few years of teaching left so have nothing to gain by striking.

“But the future teachers need to be protected,” he said.

In Dawson Creek, the president of the South Peace Teachers Association said teachers have been pushed into a corner.

“The government does not think it is important that the learning conditions of students be addressed, so they need to look at other ways to figure out how to negotiate,” Judy Richardson said.

Veteran B.C. mediator Vince Ready was appointed to head an industrial inquiry commission to recommend a new bargaining structure for teachers.

On Wednesday, teachers voted 90.5 per cent in favour of setting up picket lines starting Friday to protest the government’s legislation that freezes their wages until June 2006.

Labour lawyer Gavin Marshall said teachers are likely to claim their walkout doesn’t constitute a strike because they’re merely staging a political protest against a government-imposed contract and that their move is protected expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The teachers had demanded a 15 per cent wage increase over three years while the government offered zero as part of its public-sector wage policy.

The union also sought a cap on class sizes and a restoration of student resources lost to B.C. Liberal funding cuts in 2002.

B.C. teachers have been subjected to imposed contracts four times since 1993.

© Global National 2005

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BCTF dispute reminiscent of pre-Thatcher England

The Daily News

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Dear Sir;

Watching this labour dispute with the BCTF unfolding under Nanaimo’s own Ginny Sims, it’s like watching a Pre-Thatcher era labour dispute in Britain, where the country was paralyzed by labour for decades and Britain was the standing joke of Europe.

I understand Sims grew up there during that time and must have absorbed something of that mood.

Smart and articulate but just a little too militant for my taste. I can be abrasive too but I’ve heard you always get more flies with honey than vinegar.

Time moves on and so must we all, our teachers aren’t badly paid but we understand that they want more, well don’t we all.

Considering this virtual labour monopoly in public education, teachers should welcome vouchers where parents have choice for private education alternatives.

We have already had some alternative choice with church-affiliated schools but they are a small part of our education system.

I have always supported both but chose to sent my children to public school so it’s not as if I’m not a supporter of our public system, but common sense must prevail.

This dispute with the militant leadership of the BCTF is nothing new because it has erupted under every government we’ve had, including the NDP.

The only difference is, when their party the NDP was in, the vitriol wasn’t as palpable as it was under Social Credit or the Liberals.

A double standard, because no government is always straight up with everything it does, the question becomes complicated when you try to please everyone!

Casey Timmermans

Nanaimo

© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2005

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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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