Category Archives: Strikes

CBC: Labor unrest spreads in BC
Thousands of CUPE workers across northern British Columbia are expected to walk off the job Tuesday in support of striking teachers, a day after union supporters shut down many services in the provincial capital.

The Globe and Mail:
BC teachers still have public’s support
Striking B.C. teachers continue to have the support of residents in that province, a new poll suggests, but it also finds a fairly even split when it comes to the issue of whether it is time to go back to the classroom. According to the results of a survey conducted by Ipsos Reid, the majority of those polled — about 57 per cent — say they side with the teachers in the continuing contract dispute with the provincial government.

Thousands march in support of teachers
Mary Johnston awoke at 4 a.m. yesterday for a field trip unlike any she had ever been on. The Maple Ridge teacher caught a bus to Victoria with fellow teachers from Fairview Elementary. Three buses from her school district were making the early-morning trek to the capital. On a dreary Monday morning, when she would have been in her Grade 2 classroom hanging Halloween decorations, Ms. Johnston was instead marching at the legislature to protest.

Teachers face criminal contempt probe
The legal vise is beginning to tighten around tens of thousands of public school teachers in British Columbia, now on the seventh day of an illegal strike that has shut classrooms across the province.
The Globe and Mail
B.C. teachers still have public’s support: poll
By TERRY WEBER
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Posted at 12:20 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update

Striking B.C. teachers continue to have the support of residents in that province, a new poll suggests, but it also finds a fairly even split when it comes to the issue of whether it is time to go back to the classroom.

According to the results of a survey conducted by Ipsos Reid, the majority of those polled — about 57 per cent — say they side with the teachers in the continuing contract dispute with the provincial government.

About one-third, meanwhile, said they were on the side of the government and B.C.’s public school board.

The poll also found, however, that not all of those who back the teachers think the 12-day walkout should continue.

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The results of the survey, conducted over the weekend, suggested that about 47 per cent say they approve of the strike action taken so far and think the teachers should continue to hold out.

The other half either never supported the strike or said that, while they back the action taken to this point, it is now time to go back to work.

The survey comes as the bitter dispute, now in its 11th day, moves back into the courtroom.

On Tuesday, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association is scheduled to appear before B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown to ask that stiff fines be imposed over the teachers’ refusal to end what the provincial labour board has deemed an illegal strike. The hearing is set to begin at 10 a.m. local time.

The teachers walked off the job on Oct. 7 in what a calling a political protest triggered by the province’s decision to pass legislation imposing a new two-year contract.

The contract carries no wage increase over that period, whereas the teachers have asked for 15 per cent. The union also insists, however, that the bigger issue in the dispute is the government’s refusal to negotiate on issues of class size and composition and its efforts to force a contract on the province’s public school teachers.

Almost immediately after the walkout, the labour board ruled the strike illegal and ordered teachers to return to work. Judge Brown later upheld that ruling and, when the B.C. Teachers’ Federation didn’t comply, she effectively froze the union’s assets, making it impossible for it to pay striking teachers their $50-a-day picket pay.

B.C.’s criminal justice branch has now also hired a special prosecutor to look at whether the union should face criminal-contempt charges for its refusal to call off the strike.

In Tuesday’s action, the public school employers will ask the judge to impose “significant” fines on top of the asset freeze already in place under the civil contempt finding.

“The reason we started this whole thing is to try to have some way of bringing a message to allow the schools to be back open and have the teachers return to school,” lawyer Nazeer Mitha, who represents the public school employers, told Broadcast News.

“That’s the reason we initiated the process in the first place. That’s the reason we’re continuing the process.”

So far the teachers have held firm in their decision to stay off the job. Other unions have rallied behind them. On Monday, thousands gathered at the B.C. legislature to protest the government’s actions, disrupting transit and other services in some centres. The B.C. Federation of Labour has hinted at further sympathetic action by some of its members if the standoff continues.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees had targeted the northern part of the province, with a rally planned outside B.C. Education Minister Shirley Bond’s Prince George office.

In neighbouring communities, CUPE is asking its members to join teachers on the picket lines.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, meanwhile, has insisted that the province will not go back to the table as long as teachers continue to flout the court order.

“The fact of the matter is, in a civil society, we must obey the law,” he said in a televised address Monday.

In Tuesday’s Ipsos-Reid survey, about six in 10 people polled said they disagreed with the province’s decision to legislate an end to the dispute. Five in 10 said they “strongly” disagreed with the move.

Four in 10 said they approved the province’s efforts.

On the issue of the court-imposed freeze on the teachers’ federation’s assets, 54 per cent said they approved, while 43 per cent disapproved.

B.C. residents were also divided on the pay issue. About 46 per cent said teachers are underpaid, while 45 per cent think teachers are overpaid.
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The Globe and Mail
Thousands march in support of teachers
‘We will not be broken,’ union president tells crowd gathered at B.C. Legislature
By TOM HAWTHORN
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Page S1
Special to The Globe and Mail

VICTORIA — Mary Johnston awoke at 4 a.m. yesterday for a field trip unlike any she had ever been on.

The Maple Ridge teacher caught a bus to Victoria with fellow teachers from Fairview Elementary.

Three buses from her school district were making the early-morning trek to the capital.

On a dreary Monday morning, when she would have been in her Grade 2 classroom hanging Halloween decorations, Ms. Johnston was instead marching at the legislature to protest.

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She is one of 38,000 teachers whose walkout has been declared illegal and whose union’s assets have been frozen by the courts.

“We don’t feel like we’re breaking a law,” she said, “because it’s a bad law.”

While such sentiment might not earn a passing grade at law school, the scofflaw teacher was not alone in her opinion yesterday, as organized labour called a rally that shut down many government services in the city.

Libraries were closed and city buses were left at the terminal after picket lines appeared. As well, liquor stores and recreation centres were shut down for the day, as those workers joined teachers and others at downtown Centennial Square before parading south along the Government Street tourist strip to the lawn of the legislature.

On a day when Premier Gordon Campbell once again insisted teachers had to obey the law, the thousands who gathered in Victoria cheered on the teachers in their defiance.

Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, was greeted like a rock star at the rally.

“There is a big difference between breaking a law and having a law created to break you,” she told the rally.

“We will not be broken.”

The government passed Bill 12 on Oct. 7, imposing an extension of the existing contract on teachers. Their union wants to negotiate a collective agreement, although now the government is refusing to meet with them as they defy a court order to return to work.

“Gordon Campbell has tried to divide us,” Ms. Sims told the crowd of more than 8,000.

“He’s tried to threaten us with the courts. We as teachers have a great deal of respect for the courts. We have no respect for laws that are just unjust.”

She spoke shortly after Vancouver lawyer Leonard Doust was appointed as an independent special prosecutor. He will decide whether to launch criminal contempt proceedings.

Last Thursday, Madam Justice Brenda Brown of B.C. Supreme Court ordered the teachers’ union funds to be placed in a trusteeship as punishment for being in contempt of court. The decision prevents union members from receiving $50 a day in strike pay.

Ms. Sims, a 53-year-old teacher from Nanaimo, said her only experience with the courts in the past has been to bring students to trials as part of their studies.

The rally was the first of what could become daily events in cities across the province. Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, told the crowd the dispute could be settled only if the government is willing to negotiate with the teachers.

“Get off your high horse and get down to the table and start talking,” Mr. Sinclair told the rally.

The personal nature of the dispute, which affects about 600,000 public-school pupils from kindergarten to Grade 12, led Mr. Sinclair to give public thanks to his son, Lee Croll, who is in his graduating year at a Vancouver secondary school. Mr. Sinclair apologized to his son for being unable to see him in the past week while dealing with the dispute.

Some in the crowd greeted the speeches with chants of “general strike.”

The rally included its share of bizarre costumes, including a bone-waving protester in a caveman’s singlet, as well as two others in rat costumes complete with long pink tails.

Marchers were led by students acting as pallbearers for a coffin labelled “Education RIP.”

The procession marched in a spirit more festive than sombre, as drums kept a rhythm and one marcher rang an old-fashioned, hand-held school bell.

Michael Bendle, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student from Qualicum Beach, marched with Molly, an Irish wheaten terrier. The dog’s raincoat carried the message: “Education is going to the dogs.”

The Premier’s mug shot from his 2003 arrest for impaired driving in Hawaii was popular artwork for many signs. “This is what illegal looks like,” read one. “Bill 12, another example of impaired judgment.”

One sign read, “Hey, Gordo, kiss my assets.”

Another handmade sign repeated a catchphrase in use in schools around the province: “If you feel bullied, you need to tell someone.”

The teachers were in good spirits despite a drenching rain. Aboard the ferry on the way to Victoria, Paula Howart of Maple Ridge sang parody lyrics to Johnny Cash’s I Walk the Line. Her crystalline voice usually entertains the 27 students in her Grade 4 class at Fairview.

The day’s protest led some to wax nostalgic about their early days as teachers. Ms. Johnston, the Grade 2 teacher, recalled her first field trip as a teacher 33 years ago, which included a visit to Victoria. She was 20, the principal and only teacher at a one-room schoolhouse in the majestic wilderness of the Chilcotin, about 200 kilometres west of Williams Lake.

She brought 13 children, a majority of them aboriginal, to the big city, where they asked to see how chocolate was made. She suspects none of them ever forgot the experience. Even now, it makes her glad to be a teacher.
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The Globe and Mail
Striking B.C. teachers face criminal contempt probe
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Page A1

VANCOUVER — The legal vise is beginning to tighten around tens of thousands of public school teachers in British Columbia, now on the seventh day of an illegal strike that has shut classrooms across the province.

Even as trade unionists shut down much of the city of Victoria yesterday in a strong show of support for the teachers, a special prosecutor was appointed to determine whether criminal contempt charges should be laid against the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and its members.

In court yesterday, special prosecutor Len Doust said it is already apparent that some of the teachers’ conduct “comes perilously close” to criminal contempt of court.

At the same time, the teacher’s federation is also facing the renewed possibility of heavy fines at a further court hearing today. The hearing was sought by representatives of the province’s school boards, who have become increasingly frustrated by the ongoing shutdown.

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An innovative, earlier order by Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown freezing the teachers’ strike fund and other union assets has not lessened the teachers’ resolve to stay off the job until they have a negotiated settlement.

Federation president Jinny Sims remained defiant in the face of the day’s legal developments, which included a fervent plea from Premier Gordon Campbell to obey the law.

Teachers will not be deterred by external threats, Ms. Sims told a huge, cheering crowd that braved drenching rain to attend an anti-government protest rally outside the legislature in Victoria.

“Mr. Campbell, stop threatening us. Stop trying to divide us. It will not work. We will not be broken,” declared the 53-year-old Nanaimo high-school teacher, who has said she is prepared to go to jail in defence of the union’s strike.

The dispute is beginning to spread beyond the teachers’ picket lines into a confrontation with the province’s entire labour movement.

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair called yesterday’s organized-labour protest in Victoria, which shut bus service, mail delivery and many other government services, just the taste of things to come if the conflict is not resolved.

At least one other single-day, regional labour shutdown is expected to take place this week. Meanwhile members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees are launching their own job action. They are expected to be off the job today at work sites in Prince George and other northern cities.

The teacher’s federation launched its illegal walkout Oct. 7, after the government extended the teachers’ existing contract by legislation for two years, providing no wage increase and no improvement in working conditions.

Since then, the government and the union have been locked in a grim stalemate.

The teachers insist they must have a negotiated deal before they return to work, while the government is equally adamant that there can be no talks with the teachers’ federation until the union ends its illegal strike.

Judge Brown found the teachers’ union in civil contempt of court on Oct. 9 for ignoring a back-to-work order filed earlier in B.C. Supreme Court.

“We don’t get to obey the laws we like and disobey the laws we don’t like. That is the central issue here,” said Premier Campbell, making his first formal statement on the escalating crisis since his return to British Columbia late last week from a cross-country tour to discuss aboriginal issues.

“This is not a labour dispute. This is a question of law.”

Mr. Campbell said the government, including himself, is willing to talk to teachers about all sorts of issues, including the contentious issue of class size, but only after they go back to work.

“We have a duty as legislators to stand up for the courts, to stand behind the law and not allow anyone to put themselves above the law. . . . The law has to be obeyed.”

The Premier added that his government had nothing to do with the decision to appoint Mr. Doust, the special prosecutor.

Mr. Doust was selected for the task by the criminal justice branch of the provincial Attorney-General’s Ministry. He is one of the province’s most respected lawyers, having previously prosecuted such high-profile defendants as Todd Bertuzzi, Svend Robinson and the two accused in the Air-India trial.

“The criminal justice branch is a totally autonomous body,” Mr. Campbell said. “We had nothing to do with the appointment whatsoever.”

In court, despite his belief that actions by the teachers were close to criminal contempt of court, Mr. Doust told Judge Brown that he intended to proceed cautiously for the moment.

He said he did not want to interfere with the judge’s own civil contempt of court proceedings.

However, Judge Brown said that the issue of criminal contempt, which generally calls for much stiffer penalties, including possible jail time, than civil contempt of court, has been on her mind, because teachers have not obeyed her previous order.

She asked lawyers for both the teachers’ federation and the school boards to turn their minds to the question too, ahead of today’s hearing.

More than 10,000 protesters attended yesterday’s pro-teacher rally in Victoria, packing the legislature’s large soggy lawn.

One protest sign called the rally: “Lesson Day for Gordon”.

Teacher Don Stevenson travelled from Port Alberni. “We are not happy with the way we’ve been treated in negotiations and we’re not going to take it any more. We’re fed up.”

The only hopeful sign in the bitter deadlock was continuing communications between union leaders such as Mr. Sinclair and deputy Labour minister Rick Connolly.

But otherwise, each side is waiting for the other to make the first move.

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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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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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Vancouver Sun:
BC Labour Federation urges mass protest; Union workers urged to support teachers by shutting down Victoria on Monday”
The B.C. Federation of Labour is urging thousands of unionized employees to walk off their jobs Monday morning and join in a coordinated shutdown of the City of Victoria in support of the province’s striking public school teachers.

Teachers, employers haggle over ruling; Court-appointed assets monitor seeks clarification from judge”
A B.C. Supreme Court judge who put a 30-day freeze on the assets of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said Friday the union is barred from using “all [of its] assets” to help conduct the continuing illegal strike by teachers.

Teachers should know there is an iron fist inside this glove
There’s no question B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown created a novel solution to the teachers’ dispute — stripping their duly elected leadership of its power and the membership of a chance to return to work and save their collective bank account.

Sims: Political prowess, steely resolve
Jinny Sims seems an unlikely candidate to face down the provincial government and the wrath of the courts over an illegal strike by teachers.

Brown: Judge in teachers ruling “one of better” benchers
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown, who crafted the contempt-of-court decision this week against the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, was known as an excellent litigator during her years as a courtroom lawyer.

The Globe and Mail
BC unions discuss Monday walkout
B.C. labour leaders planned to meet Sunday to decide whether public and private-sector union members in the Victoria area would walk off the job Monday in support of the province’s striking teachers.
B.C. Fed urges mass protest
Union workers urged to support teachers by shutting down Victoria on Monday

Darah Hansen
Vancouver Sun; with files from Maurice Bridge and Jonathon Fowlie, Vancouver Sun, and Canadian Press

Saturday, October 15, 2005

CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
Students show support for teachers at Broadway and Granville.
The B.C. Federation of Labour is urging thousands of unionized employees to walk off their jobs Monday morning and join in a coordinated shutdown of the City of Victoria in support of the province’s striking public school teachers. To listen to story, click link: here.

“This is our chance to tell the government that it’s not just teachers they’re dealing with now, it’s the rest of the labour movement who will also be taking action,” federation president Jim Sinclair said Friday at a news conference where he was flanked by the presidents of 15 public and private-sector labour organizations.

Sinclair said he expects thousands of union members to join him in the day of protest, which will start Monday with a march in the capital at 11 a.m., followed by a gathering at the legislature at 1 p.m. in time for the first sitting of the legislature since teachers went on strike Oct. 7.

The move could affect transit and and other public sector services in Victoria, such as liquor stores, government services, restaurants and hotels and post-secondary institutions. However, the unions have agreed that any patient-care services will not be affected, as well as B.C. Ferries and provincial corrections facilities.

Sinclair said the Monday events are just phase one in a larger plan by labour aimed at persuading the government to sit down and negotiate a contract settlement with teachers.

He promised escalated job action, possibly a province-wide general strike, should Monday’s protest fail to gain the government’s attention.

“I don’t rule anything out in terms of where we go from here,” Sinclair said.

Barring a surprise weekend settlement, schools will remain closed Monday.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong responded Friday afternoon by saying leaving work to attend the protest would be a risky move for public sector employees. While the government won’t be seeking a court injunction to stop the demonstration, he said, workers in Victoria who walk off the job to join the rally could be disciplined under the Labour Code.

“I think 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, de Jong said.

The strike by B.C.’s 42,000 public school teachers was ruled illegal by the B.C. Supreme Court at a special hearing Sunday. On Thursday, the court froze the assets of the teachers’ union for 30 days in punishment for their continued picketing. The ruling means teachers won’t get their $50-a-day strike pay.

Teachers, meanwhile, said the court’s ruling won’t affect their resolve to remain on the picket line.

At a union rally Friday morning at Chief Maquinna elementary school in East Vancouver, teacher Millie Saunders said teachers are standing firm.

“We will stand strong, we will stand together and we will hopefully achieve some of our goals,” she said.

Darcy Olson, a teacher at Vancouver Technical secondary, agreed.

“We need to get back to the bargaining table. The premier must come forward with strength and resolve to see this through — negotiated, not legislated,” she said in reference to a contract settlement.

Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, said Friday that teachers are grateful for the show of solidarity from other unions in the province and vowed that the strike will continue until a contract settlement is reached.

Sims said she hoped a meeting would take place with de Jong over the weekend, in time for school to resume Monday.

“Mr. de Jong, let’s talk over the weekend. This is a window of opportunity, let’s seize it so our students can be back in the classrooms and our teachers teaching,” she said.

De Jong said he, too, was willing to negotiate this weekend, but not while the teachers continued to violate the B.C. Supreme Court order.

“I and the government are available 24/7 to meet with members of the union, today, this weekend, and we attach one . . . condition — they must abide by the law. I want [the teachers] to commit to go back to work and stand down from their illegal action,” he said in a meeting with The Vancouver Sun’s editorial board Friday afternoon.

“I’m not, in my view, even able to engage in some sort of conditional discussion at a time when the Supreme Court of B.C. has made it clear unequivocally what the first step in this process needs to be,” de Jong said.

Hoisting signs reading “We take education seriously” and “Take a stand 4 education,” about 200 Vancouver students made their opinions known Friday at a raucous rally at the intersection of Granville and Broadway.

“The government is clearly showing its contempt and lack of concern for the teachers, for the students and for the people of Vancouver,” said Ian Thomas, a Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill secondary.

“Teachers . . . are the people who are best to acquainted with the problems students face and they have hardly any say at all into the situation. It’s criminal and the teachers have every right to strike opposing this. They are taking a bullet for the students,” Thomas said.

“I’m going to continue to support the teachers while they remain out on strike so that they can get a good settlement, even if this goes on for a few weeks,” said Kirstin Johnson, a Grade 10 student at Kitsilano secondary.

“I have classes with 37 people in them and it’s ridiculous to think these are good conditions to be learning in and that these are acceptable conditions for teachers to be teaching in,” said Sasha Langford, a Grade 11 student at Kitsilano.

Langford said she’s concerned about losing school time if the strike continues, “but I think an issue that is more important is that when we are in school, the conditions aren’t good for us.”

Before going back to work, teachers want to negotiate a contract that includes a 15 per cent wage increase over three years, guarantees of smaller class sizes and more support for special needs students.

B.C. teachers are the third highest paid in Canada.

Education Minister Shirley Bond has said the average teacher starting salary is about $42,000 a year.

dahansen@png.canwest.com

PROTEST PARTICIPANTS

The B.C. Federation of Labour is promising a day of protest Monday that could shut down the city of Victoria. At least 15 public and private-sector unions were on hand Friday to back the federation in its move. They include:

– Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada

– Canadian Auto Workers Union

– International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

– B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union

– Hospital Employees’ Union

– Canadian Union of Public Employees of B.C.

– Federation of Post Secondary Educators

– Union of Needletrades, Textiles and Industrial Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International (UNITE HERE!)

– Canadian Office and Profession Employees’ Union

– Health Sciences Association

– Telecommunications Workers’ Union

– B.C. Building Trades

– B.C. Forum, a province-wide organization for retired union members

– B.C. Nurses’ Union

Ran with fact box “Protest Participants”, which has beenappended to the end of the story. Also See: Time to talk: editorial,C6; Debate of court ruling, A11; Black-belt teachers’ boss, A11.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Sunday » October 16 » 2005

Teachers, employers haggle over ruling
Court-appointed assets monitor seeks clarification from judge

Jonathan Fowlie and Maurice Bridge
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, October 15, 2005

A B.C. Supreme Court judge who put a 30-day freeze on the assets of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said Friday the union is barred from using “all [of its] assets” to help conduct the continuing illegal strike by teachers.

But the attempt by Justice Brenda Brown to clarify her initial ruling left the BCTF and the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association still wrangling over just what she meant.

“With respect to the prohibition on the union using its assets, those are all the assets of the union,” Brown said in a late-afternoon session, adding the order extends beyond just the BCTF to all of its union locals.

The attempt at clarification came at the request of court-appointed monitor Larry Prentice, and followed a day filled with arguments over what Brown meant when she ruled Thursday.

Brown put a freeze on the union’s assets, prohibiting it from paying its members for picketing, and enjoining the BCTF from “using its books, records and office to permit third parties to facilitate continuing breach of the court order.”

Provincial Labour Minister Mike de Jong hailed the ruling, and said it meant the union could not “use any of its assets — including its office, faxes and websites — to further this illegal activity.”

But Friday, BCTF president Jinny Sims disagreed.

Sims confirmed striking teachers would not receive their $50 daily strike pay, but maintained that it would otherwise be business as usual. “I don’t think there’s a court order to say we can’t use our phones and our faxes,” she said. “That’s just Mike de Jong’s version of what he thinks the court order means.”

Brown’s late-afternoon ruling Friday did not appear to clear up that discrepancy in the views of the two sides.

“What the court order means is that the BCTF cannot use any assets, whether they are financial, building, phone, fax,” said Michael Hancock, in-house counsel for the employers’ association, which bargains for B.C.’s 60 school boards.

“They cannot use any of those assets, nor can any of its locals use any of those sorts of assets, to facilitate a continuing breach of the court order,” he told reporters.

Sebastian Anderson, counsel for the BCTF, disagreed noting that Brown had not been specific in establishing rules governing the use of specific assets, and that she instead had ruled that the court would deal with questions of potential breaches as they were raised.

“She said that if it [specific use of fax machines, phones and other items] became a matter later on she’d consider that in terms of what the penalty would be,” Anderson told reporters outside the court.

Hancock added the employers’ association will be asking for the penalty phase — where fines or other penalties may be imposed — to “happen as soon as possible. No date has so far been set.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C., which has 10,000 members provincewide, announced Friday it has set aside an initial commitment of $200,000 to a “Feed the Teachers Fund” to buy food vouchers.

FPSE president Cindy Oliver said it was clear the provincial government was hoping to starve the teachers into submission.

“The teachers are making nothing right now, and certainly our members did not want to see any teachers going hungry because of their struggle for a fairly negotiated collective agreement,” she said.

Oliver said the FPSE action does not constitute defiance of the court order.

“We believe this is respectful of the court order,” she said. “People can drop off coffee and doughnuts to a picket line, and we’re just dropping off $50- vouchers and helping the teachers feed their families.”

Oliver added the FPSE is appealing to its national organization, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, as well as to the B.C. labour movement, for additional support for its food-voucher initiative.

jfowlie@png.canwest.com

mbridge @png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Teachers should know there’s an iron fist inside this glove

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, October 15, 2005

There’s no question B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown created a novel solution to the teachers’ dispute — stripping their duly elected leadership of its power and the membership of a chance to return to work and save their collective bank account.

We’ve seen unions slapped with huge fines, we’ve seen union leaders jailed for disobeying court orders unilaterally ending labour disputes.

In this case, Brown has ordered all the union’s bank accounts, assets and subsidiary business entities monitored for 30 days to ensure none of its resources are used to help sustain the illegal walkout.

Most people in the labour world were gobsmacked at what was generally described as an innovative, brilliant, unprecedented, historic, sophisticated decision.

We’ll see.

Though such a ruling is unprecedented in labour law, it’s the kind of approach you often see in bankruptcy cases, which was a big part of Brown’s legal background before she joined the bench in 2002.

She has practised insolvency law and this kind of order is practically boilerplate in situations where a company declares bankruptcy or seeks protection from creditors.

In many cases, the court uses its discretion to insert a monitor into the company to do exactly what Brown has ordered here — watchdog spending and cash flow.

Brown used the inherent jurisdiction of the court to apply a remedy to the teachers’ dispute that we usually see under very different circumstances.

Whether it works better than the usual punishment of fines and imprisonment remains to be seen.

As he watched teachers continue to picket Friday at a junior secondary and an elementary school across from his house, chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s labour law section Gavin Marshall agreed but continued to laud Brown.

“I thought it was a very sophisticated way of approaching the problem — I think it’s unique in Canadian labour history to appoint a monitor to oversee the assets of a public sector union in a contempt of court situation,” he told me.

I think Brown correctly understood that she was being painted into a corner by bad legislation and the dinosaur dynamics of school labour relations.

She found an elegant way, in my opinion, to strangle the ability of the union to continue what has been declared an illegal activity in a manner that doesn’t create the impression the court is taking sides.

That’s a really good aspect to her decision.

But there is an iron fist inside this velvet glove.

Her ruling leaves open the prospect of a serious penalty being imposed down the road if the teachers don’t wind down their job action.

“She walked a finer legal line than many people expected,” Marshall said.

“It’s certainly not the hammer we were expecting.”

No, the hammer is just being held back for now.

Let’s face it, the union executive had no intention of obeying any order, regardless of cost.

They made that clear in their public pronouncements and Brown took them at their word.

With her judgment though, she stepped over them and delivered a message directly to the individual members and their wallets.

She’s given each teacher a chance to return to work or stand up and prove what the leadership has been saying is true — there are principles on the line here that demand large-scale civil disobedience.

I’m skeptical.

It looks like they want more money to me.

Furthermore, I keep hearing mounting anecdotal evidence that many BCTF members want a face-saving solution to end this impasse.

I think Brown provided that.

If the teachers don’t return to work, I expect Brown to really make it hurt.

And this decision underscores just what kind of sweeping power she has.

– – –

On Monday I wrote a column that said Veselin Topalov was on the verge of winning the world chess championship.

On Thursday he coasted to victory, winning the title with a round to spare over seven of the world’s best players.

The 30-year-old Bulgarian was inspired throughout the tournament that saw him outplay his opponents, go undefeated and score 10 points out of a possible 14.

He drew his last game Friday against Judit Polgar, the strongest-ever woman player.

imulgrew@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Sims: Political prowess, steely resolve

Steve Mertl
Canadian Press

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Jinny Sims seems an unlikely candidate to face down the provincial government and the wrath of the courts over an illegal strike by teachers.

The head of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation is a diminutive 53-year-old.

But there’s also this about Sims: she has a black belt in judo and as a former competitive fencer knows something about swordplay. She can also work a room like a veteran politician, making the kind of individual connection that conveys her message and cements loyalty.

Sims was a child when her family emigrated to England from India’s Punjab in 1962.

She once dreamed of becoming an airline pilot, among other things, but volunteer work as a teenager drew her to teaching.

Sims earned her credentials in England and taught there initially, heading her school’s judo and fencing teams as well as working with youth in a juvenile prison.

She and teacher-husband Stephen Sims came to Canada in 1975, teaching for two years in Quebec before settling in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. Sims taught high school social studies and English while also serving as a guidance counsellor.

Sims got involved with the federation early, mainly on issues of social justice and the status of women.

The federation didn’t become the teachers’ accredited bargaining agent until the late 1980s.

“I would say that mobilized me in a political way, though I believe all of my involvement has been political,” Sims says.

Her involvement intensified as the union fought with successive B.C. governments over not just wages but class sizes and school funding.

“I worked very hard in my lifetime of teaching to make improvements for students’ learning conditions,” she says. “In 2002, I cried when those were stripped away by the stroke of a pen by a government through legislation once again.”

David Chudnovsky, a former president of the federation and now a New Democratic Party MLA, says of Sims: “She’s a schoolteacher, she’s a grandma, she’s a very kind-hearted, good-hearted person, but nobody should underestimate her resolve.”

Her approach seems to resonate with others in the labour movement too. The 470,000-member B.C. Federation of Labour’s affiliated unions are rallying round and there are rumblings of a general strike.

“We’ve never been to where Jinny Sims has brought us,” says Terry Allan, a member of a Canadian Union of Public Employees’ local that represents school support staff. “It’s as scary for us as it is for them. Nobody’s ever been this far.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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Brown: Judge in teachers ruling ‘one of better’ benchers

Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, October 15, 2005

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown, who crafted the contempt-of-court decision this week against the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, was known as an excellent litigator during her years as a courtroom lawyer.

“She was excellent counsel and hers was one of the better appointments to the bench in a long, long time,” said George Cadman, a senior lawyer at the Vancouver law firm Boughton, where Brown worked in the 1980s when the firm was known as Boughton Peterson Yang Anderson.

“She practised in the litigation section and was very good counsel,” Cadman recalled.

In 1995, Brown went to work for another Vancouver firm, Davis & Co., specializing in civil litigation in the areas of insolvency, construction and commercial law. Brown was an associate counsel at the firm when she was appointed to the bench of the B.C. Supreme Court on April 18, 2002.

A profile of Brown in The Advocate, a journal published by the Vancouver Bar Association, says she was born in Alberta and grew up near Pincher Creek, where her parents ran a general store and service station.

She graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in psychology and obtained her law degree from the University of Victoria in 1980. She worked as a law clerk for a year at the B.C Court of Appeal, doing legal research for judges on cases, and articled with the late Boyd Ferris at Boughton. She was called to the bar in 1982.

She married criminal lawyer Norman Callegaro and has two teenagers, a son and daughter.

The Advocate had this to say about Brown: “She has the charm of enjoying a laugh at her own expense more than the expense of others. She is an eclectic reader and movie watcher and no stranger to subtitles. A good bottle of wine is not wasted on Brenda, who attends a monthly wine dinner with compatriots with similar taste buds.”

One of Brown’s first high-profile cases as a judge was in November, 2002, when she ruled against the City of Vancouver over the Arbutus corridor, which included a rail line running north-south through Kitsilano and along Arbutus to the Fraser River.

The city wanted to preserve the corridor for transportation but property owner Canadian Pacific Railway planned to develop the land for housing, commercial or industrial uses.

CPR launched the legal challenge after Vancouver city council passed a bylaw in July 2000 designating the corridor for use only as a public thoroughfare. In her 37-page decision, Brown ruled the city did not have the power to enact such a bylaw and quashed it.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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B.C. unions to discuss Monday walkout
By JEREMY HAINSWORTH
Saturday, October 15, 2005 Posted at 8:07 PM EDT
Canadian Press

Vancouver — B.C. labour leaders planned to meet Sunday to decide whether public and private-sector union members in the Victoria area would walk off the job Monday in support of the province’s striking teachers.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong said that while the government won’t seek a court injunction to stop the unions from walking out, it could be risky for them.

Mr. de Jong said Friday he finds it troubling that other unions would link themselves to the B.C. Teachers’ Federation whose strike has been characterized as illegal and continues in defiance of two court orders.

He said workers who join a Monday walkout could be disciplined under the provincial Labour Code.

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair said he would call off the walkout if the government agreed to sit down to bargain with the teachers over the weekend.

“There’s still lots of time left but I haven’t heard any news from the teachers that would encourage me that the government understands that it’s going to take some conversations between the parties to fix the problem,” Mr. Sinclair said Saturday.

Mr. Sinclair has asked members of public and private sector unions to leave work and join a march in Victoria at 11 a.m. Monday and gather at the legislature at 1 p.m. as it sits for the first time since the strike began Oct. 7.

“It is going to be a lot of people,” Mr. Sinclair said. “This is a very serious, sobering moment for the labour movement.

“None of us are excited or ecstatic about what’s happening here,” he said. “This is a very difficult situation made all the more difficult by the fact that the government which is actually the employer of these . . . teachers is refusing to talk to their employees.

“They’re hiding behind the courts and it’s not going to work and it’s making a big mess out of the education system.”

Federation officials were to meet on Sunday to see what events had transpired during the weekend.

Mr. de Jong, however, has vowed not to bargain with people who are breaking the law.

And teachers’ union president Jinny Sims remains just as resolute.

She says the teachers will not back down.

She has remained open to meeting with government representatives and maintains she is confounded by the minister’s refusal to meet with teachers.

Mr. Sinclair has the backing of the leaders of the Canadian Auto Workers, B.C. Government Employees’ Union, Hospital Employees’ Union the Canadian Union of Public Employees and many more.

He said the protest Monday won’t affect patient-care services, extended care or services to those with disabilities.

“It is absolutely essential that we are disciplined in our support and that we do not give government a way to shift the focus from teachers and students by turning a spotlight on disruptions to patient, resident and client care,” Hospital Employees’ Union secretary-business manager Judy Darcy said in a news release.

The strike by 38,000 B.C. teachers has kept about 600,000 public school students from kindergarten to Grade 12 out of school.

Mr. Sinclair indicated the 470,000-member federation’s campaign in support of teachers could escalate if there’s no resolution to the dispute.

Striking B.C. teachers said on Friday that a court ruling freezing their strike pay has only hardened their resolve to stay off the job until the government negotiates with them.

The B.C. Supreme Court has frozen the assets of the B.C. Teachers Federation to punish teachers for continuing their illegal strike.

The ruling Thursday means teachers won’t get their $50-a-day strike pay.

The B.C. government imposed a contract on teachers that contains no wage increase.

Although the B.C. Labour Relations Board ruled last Oct. 7 that the teachers’ strike was illegal, they have stayed off the job.

Last weekend, the B.C. Supreme Court found them in contempt of court for defying the board’s ruling.

Before going back to work, teachers want to negotiate a contract that includes a 15 per cent wage increase over three years and guarantees of smaller classes.

B.C. teachers are the third highest-paid in Canada.

Education Minister Shirley Bond has said the average teacher starting salary is about $42,000 a year.

Follow

The Vancouver Sun:
Court cracks down on teachers
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation is prohibited from providing strike pay to its members and may no longer use its hefty war chest to finance an illegal walkout that has closed public schools for a week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ruled Thursday.

This strike is about more than money, defiant teachers say
Striking teachers at one Vancouver school said Thursday they were encouraged by a B.C. Supreme Court decision not to levy a fine on their union, and vowed to continue picketing despite the financial hardship of the court’s prohibition on strike pay.

“It’s all garbage,” says plaintiff names in class action suit
Jacqueline Grant, the lone plaintiff named in a class-action lawsuit against the teachers and their union, said her former lawyer Denis Berntsen launched the proceeding without her knowledge or consent.

The Globe and Mail:
BC teachers stay off job
British Columbia’s striking teachers dug in their heels Friday, remaining off the job despite a court ruling cutting off their strike pay by effectively freezing their union’s ability to fund the labour dispute.

BC court orders halt on teachers strike pay
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has frozen the financial clout of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation to wage its ongoing, provincewide illegal strike. Instead of levying fines against the union yesterday, as almost all, including leaders of the BCTF, had expected, Madam Justice Brenda Brown took the step of hitting teachers in the pocketbook, by cutting off their $50-a-day strike pay. She further restrained the BCTF from using any of its considerable assets “directly or indirectly” to finance other aspects of the week-old strike by 38,000 teachers.

Vancouver Sun
Court cracks down on teachers
Judge puts 30-day freeze on BCTF’s $14-million collective-bargaining fund

Janet Steffenhagen and Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun

October 14, 2005

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation is prohibited from providing strike pay to its members and may no longer use its hefty war chest to finance an illegal walkout that has closed public schools for a week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ruled Thursday.

The decision surprised both sides but did not appear certain to end their labour dispute.

Rather than fining the union as had been expected, Brown effectively put a 30-day freeze on the BCTF’s $14-million collective-bargaining fund, saying a court-appointed monitor will keep tabs on the union’s activities to ensure no more money is spent on a strike involving 40,000 teachers.

The union had promised teachers who helped with picketing $50 a day.

Brown imposed the penalty — described by all parties as unprecedented in B.C. — after the union ignored her Sunday back-to-work order and her finding that the BCTF was in contempt for continuing a strike that the Labour Relations Board said is illegal. Brown reserved the right to impose a fine at a later date, depending on how the union responds.

BCTF president Jinny Sims appeared unmoved by the decision Thursday afternoon and repeated her vow to continue the job action, now entering its fifth day, until the government agrees to her members’ demands for improved classroom conditions, a fair and reasonable pay raise and restoration of bargaining rights.

“We have our mandate from our members. They gave us that mandate knowing there was going to be consequences,” she said. “Our teachers are taking part in a political protest and right now, our focus is to get to a resolution.”

She said she would have further comments after she and her officials had a chance to study the unusual ruling.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong also continued his tough stance, saying again there will be no talks until the BCTF ends its illegal job action but promising a meeting the day the strike ends.

“It’s time to move forward,” he said, adding that his government will fix the broken bargaining system and will talk to teachers and other education partners about improving the School Act in response to teachers’ concerns about class size and composition.

Regarding the teachers’ request for a pay hike, de Jong promised a “fair and reasonable increase” in 2006 but reiterated there will be nothing before then.

He urged individual teachers to “do what’s right — return to your classes. I make this appeal not just because it’s the right thing to do for students and their families but because the court has ordered it so.”

The court ruling places the union in a form of trusteeship, he said. “The union cannot use any of its assets — including its offices, faxes or websites — to further this illegal action. It cannot pay its members for the time already spent carrying out this illegal activity and it cannot pay them for any further breach of the law.”

De Jong told teachers who want to return to work but fear sanctions that the B.C. Labour Code does not allow unions to penalize members who refuse to participate in an illegal activity.

The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, which bargains for B.C.’s 60 school boards, said the judge’s ruling will likely have a greater impact on striking teachers than the employers’ request for a significant fine.

“We’re very pleased with the court’s ruling. We believe the court has found a very innovative way of ensuring that the BCTF does not continue to finance or otherwise support this illegal job action,” said association lawyer Michael Hancock. “We hope teachers will come back to work and we’ll be able to open our schools again quickly.

“This is more likely to be effective than any fine that the court could impose given the financial assets of the federation,” he said, since fines for civil contempt in labour disputes have traditionally ranged from $80,000 to $150,000.

Naz Mitha, also a lawyer for the employers’ association, said it wasn’t clear Thursday whether the union had already paid members for four days of picketing.

Hancock said the ruling sends a clear message to the union. “It’s saying the BCTF can’t use any of its assets to continue this strike. That means no strike pay, that means no use of BCTF resources to create signs, advertising, all the attendant expenses that go into maintaining an illegal strike.”

Labour expert Ken Thornicroft called the ruling “creative” and suggested it might give the union a way out of a tight position.

Sims has vowed to continue the strike until members have a negotiated settlement, but the government has declared it will not talk to a union engaged in an illegal strike. With the court’s ruling, the union could call off the strike, saying it didn’t want to cause its members financial hardship, and not lose face. Thornicroft said.

“I’m pretty impressed with the ruling,” he said. “By stripping the union members of their strike pay, I think she’s given the union an out.”

jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com

nhall@png.canwest.com

IN THE JUDGE’S WORDS:

Excerpts from B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown’s ruling Thursday that handcuffs the B.C. Teachers’ Federation’s ability to pay striking teachers their $50-a-day picket pay.

“The BCTF is restrained for 30 days from directly or indirectly using its assets to facilitate breach of the court order of October 6, 2005. In particular, the BCTF is enjoined from paying amounts to its members as ‘strike pay’ or to otherwise compensate members for loss relating to breach of the order of October 6, 2005; from providing guarantees or promises to pay to protect members from such losses; from using its books, records and offices to permit third parties to facilitate continuing breach of the court order. Either party may apply to extend or shorten this order.”

“I am appointing a monitor to ensure that this order is obeyed.”

“The BCTF may use assets in the ordinary course of business, which would include such things as paying rent, wages to employees and other expenses it would normally pay. It may pay legal fees.”

Ran with fact box “In the Judge’s Words”, which has beenappended to the end of the story.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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The Vancouver Sun

This strike’s about more than money, defiant teachers say
Teachers show strong resolve to continue the fight, despite court’s freeze of strike fund

Jenny Lee
Vancouver Sun

Friday, October 14, 2005

CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
Striking teachers Denis Lejay and Sheila Mullins picket at Kitsilano secondary after learning their strike fund will be frozen.
Striking teachers at one Vancouver school said Thursday they were encouraged by a B.C. Supreme Court decision not to levy a fine on their union, and vowed to continue picketing despite the financial hardship of the court’s prohibition on strike pay.

French immersion teacher Lukas Morel echoed the sentiments of many pickets outside Kitsilano secondary school.

“If anything, we take [the B.C. Supreme Court decision] as positive news for us because our union is not being penalized for what we’re doing,” said Morel, 26, who is walking the picket line just weeks into his first teaching job.

“By not fining us anything, they are giving us unofficial approval of what we’re doing,” Morel said.

Brian Denhertog, who teaches technical studies, was also picketing Thursday.

“I don’t know a single teacher who is out here because of $50 strike pay,” he said. “I’m not here for $50.

“I’m going to come and stand here until the government negotiates a settlement with my federation.”

French immersion and social studies teacher Erin Fitzpatrick agreed.

“For most of us, it’s not about wages and it’s certainly not about strike pay,” she said. “It’s not about money. If I wanted money, I wouldn’t be a teacher.”

“We just believe we have right on our side and we hope we have parents on our side,” Fitzpatrick said. “As long as I can stand here on the sidewalk, I will.”

Ken Scott, a Kitsilano secondary school media arts, theatre arts and English teacher, has three children aged 11, nine and four. Scott’s wife works part time and his family will soon feel the financial pinch.

“If I lose my salary for a cause, it has to be a really good reason and I see the value of making this commitment right the way down the line,” Scott said.

English and social studies teacher Brad Price joined the Kitsilano picket line Thursday with his four-month-old daughter Lucy, after doing picket duty in Richmond.

“I don’t think the $50 a day is going to change too many people’s minds,” said Price, whose wife is a teacher on maternity leave and receiving pay. “I think the resolve is very strong.”

First-year teacher Morel said his class sizes aren’t too bad, with the largest at 30 students, but he is short full class sets of some books, and knows other teachers face more challenging teaching conditions.

Fifty dollars in daily strike pay would have paid for food and gas, but Morel said “I can last a little while. I have family who can help me.”

Morel has a little under $1,000 in his bank account, but no student loans to repay. So far, he’s just been cutting back on extras such as gas, restaurants and going to the movies.

On Thursday afternoon, the Kitsilano pickets were uncertain of the implications of the court’s freeze on the B.C. Teachers’ Federation’s $14-million collective-bargaining fund.

If the BCTF needs funds to continue the strike, Fitzpatrick, whose spouse is earning a paycheque, said she is personally willing to contribute.

jennylee@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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The Vancouver Sun

‘It’s all garbage’ says plaintiff named in class action

Louise Dickson
Victoria Times Colonist

Friday, October 14, 2005

VICTORIA — Jacqueline Grant, the lone plaintiff named in a class-action lawsuit against the teachers and their union, said her former lawyer Denis Berntsen launched the proceeding without her knowledge or consent.

“It’s all garbage,” Grant, 35, a Saanich mother and day care worker, said Wednesday. “I haven’t signed anything, I haven’t even met with the man. I talked to him on the phone once last Thursday and the next thing I know my name’s in the paper.

“He’s saying he advised me not to speak publicly about the suit but he didn’t advise me of anything. I didn’t agree to any of this. And I’m the lone plaintiff. I’m like, how does that happen?”

On Tuesday, Berntsen named Jacqueline Grant as the lone plaintiff in a statement of claim accusing teachers, their union and Jinny Sims, their leader, of negligence in their move to strike, even in the face of legislation and legal decisions which have declared the strike illegal.

That negligence, contends the statement of claim, includes the failure to instruct union members to return to work and the negligent efforts to maintain service levels.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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B.C. teachers stay off job
By TERRY WEBER
Friday, October 14, 2005 Posted at 2:20 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update

British Columbia’s striking teachers dug in their heels Friday, remaining off the job despite a court ruling cutting off their strike pay by effectively freezing their union’s ability to fund the labour dispute.

Picket lines went up at public schools around the province again early Friday as the province’s roughly 40,000 teachers continued what they have labelled a political protest against the government’s efforts to impose a two-year contract.

School boards province wide once again told parents to keep their children at home.

“The teachers’ strike and picketing at schools across the province will continue today,” a recorded message on the North Vancouver School District’s information hotline said.

“The duration of the job action remains uncertain at this time.”

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims said Friday teachers will remain on the picket line for improved learning conditions, for students and for the return of union bargaining rights.

She also said the court ruling won’t stop the union from communicating with its members.

“We will continue to support our members and we will continue to communicate with them,” she said.

“This is a collective action and we’re all in this together.”

The B.C. Federation of Labour, meanwhile, was expected to hold a press conference later in the day to outline how other provincial unions will support striking teachers. The federation has already scheduled a late morning march and rally in support of the teachers scheduled to take place Monday in front of the provincial legislature.

In a surprise ruling Thursday afternoon, B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown placed tight restrictions on how the teachers’ federation can use its assets, essentially taking control of the union’s strike fund for 30 days.

The decision means neither union money nor third-party donations can be used to pay striking teachers their $50-a-day picket pay.

Judge Brown said the federation could still fund day-to-day business operations and its legal expenses but appointed a monitor to oversee union’s finances to make sure her order is obeyed. But the union cannot use any of its assets — including its offices, faxes or Web site to further the action, according to the B.C. provincial government’s interpretation of the decision.

Most had been expecting the judge to impose a stiff fine on the union for failing to abide by an earlier labour board order, which labelled the action an illegal strike and ordered teachers to go back to work. The labour board decision was upheld by Judge Brown at a hearing last weekend, leading to Thursday’s ruling.

The teachers say that they respect the law but must protest against what they say is unjust legislation, which seeks to impose a two-year contract with no pay increase and no ability to negotiate issues such as class size and composition.

The dispute has kept 600,000 public school students from kindergarten to Grade 12 out of class since last Friday.

Teachers have not successfully negotiated a contract since 1993 without the government’s stepping in.

However, B.C. Labour Minister Mike de Jong has called on the striking teachers to return to the classroom in the wake of the latest court ruling.

“In light of such an unprecedented ruling, I am today appealing to individual teachers to do what is right,” he said.

“Return to your classes. I make this appeal not just because it is the right thing to do for students and their families, but because the court has ordered it.”

Meanwhile, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell continued to draw fire Friday after a week of meetings in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, which kept him away from his home province during the dispute.

“By refusing to negotiate with the B.C. teachers, Campbell is showing contempt for public education in the province,” Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Rhonda Kimberley-Young said.

“Every scrap of educational research indicates that no meaningful reform of education can take place without consultation and dialogue with the teachers charged to implement the reforms.”

With a file from Canadian Press

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B.C. court orders halt to teachers’ strike pay
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Friday, October 14, 2005 Page A1

VANCOUVER — A B.C. Supreme Court judge has frozen the financial clout of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation to wage its ongoing, provincewide illegal strike.

Instead of levying fines against the union yesterday, as almost all, including leaders of the BCTF, had expected, Madam Justice Brenda Brown took the step of hitting teachers in the pocketbook, by cutting off their $50-a-day strike pay.

She further restrained the BCTF from using any of its considerable assets “directly or indirectly” to finance other aspects of the week-old strike by 38,000 teachers.

Her surprising, extraordinary decision may prevent the BCTF from printing leaflets, issuing picket-line bulletins, posting information on union websites, organizing rallies and even using their own headquarters, phones and faxes for strike-related activity.

To ensure compliance, Judge Brown appointed an independent monitor to take complete control of the union’s books and records for the next 30 days.

The monitor, to be paid for by the BCTF, will have the power to scrutinize all payments the union makes “on a daily basis,” and report any breaches to the court.

School board lawyer Michael Hancock said the restrictions will put a severe crimp in the union’s ability to maintain its defiant walkout, called to fight a government-imposed two-year contract that provides no wage increase and no improvement in working conditions. In 2001, the government declared teachers an essential service, making the strike illegal.

“What the court has, in fact, ordered is that the BCTF can’t use any of its assets . . . whether liquid cash assets, offices, records . . . to pursue this illegal strike,” Mr. Hancock said. “That is an order which is innovative and, in our view, more significant than what we asked for.”

But yesterday’s ruling, described approvingly by one analyst as a surgical remedy rather than a hammer, had no immediate impact on the teachers’ determination to stay off the job until they have negotiated some form of settlement.

BCTF president Jinny Sims invited government representatives to meet with the union “this afternoon, this evening, throughout the night and into the early hours of the morning” to pursue a resolution to the bitter conflict, which has left more than 600,000 public school students idle across the province.

But the unexpected nature of Judge Brown’s ruling seemed to catch the union off guard, and Ms. Sims declined any more comment until she has discussed its implications further with BCTF lawyers and leaders of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

BCTF communications director Nancy Knickerbocker was forced to tell reporters late yesterday she is not sure if she can still give out information about the teachers’ strike in light of the court-ordered restrictions.

Provincial Labour Minister Mike de Jong reiterated his call for the teachers to return to work.

He said the government is willing to talk about many issues with the BCTF, but only when the union ends its illegal strike.

It is also not totally clear from the court order whether other labour organizations, such as the Federation of Labour, would be allowed to assist the teachers, but the school boards’ Mr. Hancock said such a move would definitely be “against the spirit” of Judge Brown’s decision.

Judge Brown, who was appointed to the B.C. Supreme Court in 2002, found the BCTF guilty of contempt of court last Sunday for defying a back-to-work order by the B.C. Labour Relations Board.

She set yesterday morning to decide on the union’s punishment, which she handed down in a brief but succinct four-page judgment the moment lawyers for both sides concluded 2½ hours of argument.

Nazeer Mitha, lawyer for the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, urged Judge Brown to hit the union with heavy fines and seize its $14-million strike fund to ensure striking teachers not receive compensation.

“That is the most troubling aspect of all, that the BCTF is paying its members to break the law,” Mr. Mitha said.

He said the teachers’ defiance of a court order is unprecedented, because it is ongoing and there is no sign the union is ready to end it.

Union lawyer John Rogers told Judge Brown that teachers have “a great deal of respect for the law, but sometimes the law is so unjust, it cannot be obeyed.”

He recalled words from former B.C. Labour Relations Board chairman Paul Weiler, now a law professor at Harvard University, who said that often, when you “screw the lid down on a union’s right to collective bargain, the lid eventually blows off.”

Mr. Rogers called for a fine of less than $150,000 to be imposed on the BCTF, noting that the union was found guilty of civil contempt, not criminal contempt.

In her ruling, Judge Brown did not free the union from the possibility of subsequent, severe fines, but said: “I do not propose to do that today, although that may be appropriate at a later date.”

Follow

The Vancouver Sun:
Teachers stay off job as court eyes penalities
Striking teachers are expected to keep B.C. public schools closed for a fourth day today as the B.C. Supreme Court conducts a special hearing to consider penalties for a union that has refused to obey the law.
Editorial: Teachers, government must find way to stop current madness
British Columbia’s 600,000 public school students are being trampled underfoot as the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation continue their battle for the moral high ground.

The Globe and Mail
School boards expected to push for heavy fiines
Four days into an illegal strike that has shut down the province’s public school system, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation faces its potential punisher today in B.C. Supreme Court.

Times Colonist (Victoria):
Scab teachers on Vancouver Island
Some teachers have decided to defy their union and are crossing picket lines to return to work. For the past three work days, Carl Ratsoy has marked tests, checked equipment for an experiment and developed lesson plans — all standard stuff for the Reynolds Secondary physics teacher.

CBC:
Education ministers urges teachers to scab
With 42,000 teachers in British Columbia in the third day of an illegal strike, the province’s education minister says her government will try to protect teachers who defy their union and return to the classroom.

CTV
Striking BC techers’union facing penalties
The illegal strike by British Columbia’s public school teachers shows no sign of being resolved — despite a court order to return to the classroom.Teachers stay off job as court eyes penalties

Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun

October 13, 2005

Striking teachers are expected to keep B.C. public schools closed for a fourth day today as the B.C. Supreme Court conducts a special hearing to consider penalties for a union that has refused to obey the law.

Labour specialists said Wednesday they were anticipating a hefty fine for the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, but it wasn’t clear what effect that would have since the union has vowed to continue picketing until its contract demands are met.

Ken Thornicroft, a labour relations expert at the University of Victoria, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the court imposed a fine of $250,000 a day, which could be ratcheted up if the union’s defiance continues.

“Sometimes the judges get testy when their authority is ignored,” added Mark Thompson, a labour relations professor at the University of B.C. “When a union goes head-to-head against a government, the union loses one way or another.”

The last time B.C. Supreme Court fined a union for an illegal strike was in 2004, when the Hospital Employees’ Union staged a three-day walkout. But that union, unlike the BCTF, had ended its strike before it was fined.

BCTF president Jinny Sims has said teachers won’t return to the classroom until they have approved a new contract that includes classroom improvements, a wage hike and restoration of full bargaining rights. During bargaining, the teachers requested a 15-per-cent wage increase over three years.

Only a small number of the union’s 42,000 members were crossing picket lines this week. At Reynolds secondary in Victoria, seven teachers were in their classrooms, according to one of them, Ed Stephenson.

In an interview, Stephenson admitted he has never been a union activist but said he wouldn’t cross a legal picket line. The reason he is working now is because the B.C. Labour Relations Board has declared the strike illegal, he said.

“It’s been a choice of conscience,” said Stephenson, a teacher for 30 years. He said the seven teachers have had no trouble with pickets because the school community is respectful of differences of opinions.

The labour relations board on Wednesday confirmed its ruling that the strike is illegal, after considering an appeal from the union.

As a result of the strike, 25,000 support workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are also off the job, even though some are covered by contracts that provided no wage increase.

“Times are better now,” explained the union’s B.C. president Barry O’Neill, pointing to the government’s surplus.

The Liberals have said no public sector union — including the BCTF — will get a wage increase before 2006.

CUPE workers are being paid $10 a day in strike pay, although that will increase if the feud continues beyond 10 days. Teachers receive $50 a day.

The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association says school boards are saving a total of $14 million a day as a result of the job action, and Education Minister Shirley Bond said boards may spend that money in their districts.

CUPE’s O’Neill said the resolve of teachers and support workers is strong. He said if a general strike was to happen, it would likely be spontaneous rather than organized through a union vote.

But Thornicroft said he doesn’t think teachers will get that kind of backing from other unions. “It’s wide but it’s thin,” he said of the support Wednesday.

Both Thornicroft and Thompson said the BCTF’s strategy is a mystery. “When you get into a dispute like this, you always have to have an exit strategy and I don’t know what their exit strategy is,” Thompson said.

Thornicroft said continued defiance could bankrupt the union or bring criminal contempt charges rather than just the civil proceedings now underway.

Criminal contempt could mean a jail term for Sims, although the last time that happened in B.C. was in 1967. The most celebrated example Canada-wide was in 1980 when Jean-Claude Parrot, then leader of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, was jailed for two months.

Thompson said jail terms usually only inflame a labour situation, but escalating fines or fines against individuals have been used in other jurisdictions to force unions to return to work.

“This is kind of a crisis in a democratic society. It really is,” said Thompson. “We’re not in the habit of treating law-abiding citizens badly in our society and by and large [teachers] do obey the law. So you have to try to balance those things.”

jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

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Teachers, government must find a way to halt the current madness

Vancouver Sun

Thursday, October 13, 2005

British Columbia’s 600,000 public school students are being trampled underfoot as the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation continue their battle for the moral high ground.

After nearly a week without school, both sides are rapidly losing credibility in their claims to be acting in the best interest of students.

BCTF president Jinny Sims says teachers are willing to stay out on their illegal strike “as long as it takes” to achieve a fair agreement. She has climbed out on a tall ledge with no exit strategy and has taken B.C.’s 40,000 teachers with her.

Labour Minister Mike de Jong says the dispute is out of his hands as long as the teachers continue breaking the law. He echoes the view of Premier Gordon Campbell, who also clings to the position that since his government imposed a contract on teachers there is nothing to negotiate.

Both the government and the BCTF are wrong.

The government is responsible for delivering public education. As long as the schools are closed, the government is failing to deliver that vital service. It cannot duck that responsibility by simply blaming the teachers.

Nor does the fact that the strike is illegal obviate the need for de Jong and his cabinet colleagues to start talking to teachers about how to get them back into the classroom.

Sims, in defending the BCTF, cites the doctrine of civil disobedience, which, in the tradition of Gandhi and the American civil rights movement, argues that people have the moral right and sometimes the moral duty to defy unjust laws.

That is her choice, and today the BCTF may learn just how expensive a choice that can be as the B.C. Supreme Court rules on what penalty to impose after finding the union in contempt of court.

No doubt it will be severe, as it should be. The rule of law must be protected from those who would willfully put themselves above it.

But as we saw with the illegal strike by the Hospital Employees Union, the legal process is separate from the negotiations that will eventually have to be held between teachers and the government to get children back into their classrooms.

Education Minister Shirley Bond seems to believe the way to do that is to get enough teachers to defy their union. By the time that happens, and there is no reason to believe it will, enormous damage will already have been inflicted on students and our school system.

The courts will eventually wear down the BCTF. The union has the resources, however, to endure several million dollars in fines and, from her rhetoric, it sounds like Sims may be prepared to go to jail. In the meantime, however, thousands of children will have suffered unrecoverable losses.

Many students will do just fine, even if the strike were to go on for weeks. Others, including those who were already struggling with school or who can’t count on much help at home, might never catch up this year.

Every day counts. High school students on the semester system who face provincial exams are losing the equivalent of two days for every day schools remain closed.

This madness has to end.

The government must start talking to teachers. It won’t be easy. They are continents apart, hostile and suspicious of each other’s motives. But without dialogue, the gulf between them will never be bridged.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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School boards expected to push for heavy fines
B.C. Supreme Court to consider sanctions against union, teachers on illegal strike
By ROD MICKLEBURGH
Thursday, October 13, 2005 Page S3

VANCOUVER — Four days into an illegal strike that has shut down the province’s public school system, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation faces its potential punisher today in B.C. Supreme Court.

Judge Brenda Brown, who found the BCTF guilty of contempt of court last Sunday for defying a back-to-work order, is scheduled to hear arguments this morning on what sanctions should be applied to the teachers and their union.

School boards are expected to press for the BCTF to be hit with heavy fines, particularly in light of the fact the teachers’ strike is continuing and they have vowed not to return to work without a negotiated settlement.

The government is just as firm that there is nothing to negotiate because a new contract has already been imposed on the teachers by Bill 12, passed by the Liberal majority in the legislature late last week after an all-night filibuster by the NDP.

The BCTF has been told to have its chief financial officer in court to provide information on the union’s considerable assets.

Mark Thompson, an industrial relations expert at the University of British Columbia, said the union could face severe penalties for its illegal job action.

“The courts don’t like to get involved in labour disputes if they can help it, but when they are defied, they can get very cross and make the union pay in various ways,” Prof. Thompson said.

The last B.C. union to defy government legislation, the Hospital Employees Union, was fined $150,000 for a three-day illegal strike. But that strike had ended by the time of the court’s decision.

On the eve of today’s court hearing, however, BCTF president Jinny Sims said there is no wavering in the teachers’ commitment to stand up against Bill 12 and the loss of their right to negotiate a new collective agreement.

“We are determined and resolved,” she said. “There is always apprehension when the courts are involved, because we are law-abiding citizens.

“At the same time, we knew when we took our stand that there were going to be consequences. And we are prepared for those consequences.”

Teachers have tried to play by the rules, but the government keeps changing them, Ms. Sims said.

“So for us, as teachers, not to fight back, not to resist, is to say that the government can do whatever they want to the teachers of this province.

“You can’t operate as a professional and look yourself in the eye and live with the kind of rulings this government has meted out on teachers,” she said.

Ms. Sims also clarified the number of teachers who are off the job, previously reported as 42,000. That was an old number, she said. Union membership has fallen in recent years to about 38,000.

In the union’s hastily scheduled vote last week to defy Bill 12, a total of 22,693 teachers voted 90.5 per cent in favour of walking out, about 9,000 fewer than took part in the BCTF’s first strike vote.

Also off the job are 25,000 school support workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees who are respecting the teachers’ picket lines.

“Legal or illegal, they are picket lines, and in the labour movement, we have kind of a motto about picket lines,” said Barry O’Neill, president of CUPE’s B.C. division. “A picket line is a picket line, and we don’t cross.”

He said concern is growing in the labour movement about the Liberal government’s disrespect for collective bargaining, and that might yet escalate into job action by other unions.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Shirley Bond said the government will do all it can on behalf of teachers who want to cross BCTF picket lines and report for work.

A scattering of teachers did so in several school districts around the province yesterday.

Ms. Bond said many more teachers would like to be back in school.

“It’s time that the B.C. Teachers’ Federation actually listened to the voice of not just parents, but many classroom teachers who are expressing that view.”

The Education Minister said the government understands the need for a better bargaining system for teachers and a third party has been appointed to recommend a new structure for the next round of negotiations.

“We are working to fix the system,” Ms. Bond told reporters in Victoria.

Jeff Hopkins, principal at Belmont Secondary School in Victoria, said three teachers were at work yesterday. “Each had their own reason for coming in, but generally, they felt a little anxious and a little frustrated.”
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Times Colonist (Victoria)

Cracks starting to show in teachers’ united front
Union head says members remain united

Jeff Rud
Times Colonist

October 13, 2005

CREDIT: Ray Smith, CanWest News Service
Anne-Marie De Lorey and her children walk the picket line at Central School in support of the B.C. Teachers Federation in Victoria on Friday.
Some teachers have decided to defy their union and are crossing picket lines to return to work.

For the past three work days, Carl Ratsoy has marked tests, checked equipment for an experiment and developed lesson plans — all standard stuff for the Reynolds Secondary physics teacher.

It has been business as usual for Ratsoy, with one glaring exception. There have been no students at the Greater Victoria district high school since the B.C. Teachers’ Federation began its full-scale walkout last Friday.

Ratsoy is among 15 district teachers — out of about 1,200 — who have either refused to walk out or returned since the strike began. At Reynolds, seven of 44 teachers are on the job, while a small number are also reporting at Oak Bay High School.

“To me it’s really pretty simple,” Ratsoy, 44, said Wednesday. “I think I have a legal responsibility, a professional responsibility, that really outweighs all other considerations.”

As a member of the B.C. College of Teachers, Ratsoy said: “I’m sort of expected to obey the rule of law.”

“There must be a better way of resolving disputes,” he added.

B.C.’s teachers have been off the job since Friday in what the Labour Relations Board says is an illegal strike.

Teachers went on strike in reaction to the government imposing a contract after months of fruitless talks. This morning, the B.C. Supreme Court will hear submissions on penalties for the illegal walkout. Court is expected to assess the BCTF daily fines.

BCTF president Jinny Sims said resolve remains solid. Out of 38,000 active members, the vast majority are on picket lines. “As a matter of fact, I’d say we have fewer [dissenters] now than we’ve had in the past — ever.”

Ratsoy said he hasn’t been hassled while walking past strikers and if the walkout is prolonged, he expects more teachers to cross the line. “Payday is, of course, this Friday for teachers and [receiving less pay] will be something that people will have to examine,” he said.

Three teachers were also on the job Wednesday at Belmont Secondary, including Charlene Manning, a 30-year veteran in the Sooke district.

Manning crossed the picket line Friday, was joined by a second colleague Tuesday and another Wednesday.

“It’s illegal and it won’t benefit anybody, I don’t think,” Manning said of the strike. She also crossed Canadian Union of Public Employees picket lines at her school in 2004.

Ratsoy has had a previous battle with his own union, as well, for accepting an appointment by then education minister Christy Clark to a new college of teachers board which the union opposed. “I think a number of teachers . . . do fear disciplinary action,” Ratsoy said. “But I don’t think it’s possible, really. How can a union try to discipline its members for behaving in a lawful manner? That’s absurd.”

Education Minister Shirley Bond said teachers have been calling her office, the Education Ministry and some school boards, to talk about crossing the line.

“We’ve been sharing information,” Bond said, “so they recognize there are laws in this province that would prevent them from being penalized for a personal choice, especially when the activity they’re choosing not to participate in has been deemed illegal. . . . I would hope the union would respect their members’ choice and I’m sure it was a very difficult personal decision.”

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2005

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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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