’What can they do to 40,000 teachers?’

By PETTI FONG

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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