Teachers and their supporters were out in force on the picket line at New Westminster Secondary Tuesday morning as members of the teachers’ union started the first day of the full-scale strike.
The strike came after negotiations broke down over the weekend between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the province’s negotiating body, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association.
Grant Osborne, president of the New Westminster Teachers’ Union, who was on the picket line with about 70 striking teachers and a dozen CUPE support staff Tuesday morning, said he was “incredibly disappointed” with the way negotiations went over the weekend.
“The government indicated it was willing to sit down and do hard bargaining, and the BCTF tabled its proposal on Friday and the government didn’t even choose to respond until Sunday evening,” he said. “What they came back with was worse than anything we’ve seen.”
The teachers’ union proposed an eight per cent wage increase over five years, down from the previous 9.75 per cent, and the government countered at seven per cent after previously having offered 7.25 over six years, Osborne said.
According to Osborne, also part of the government’s latest proposal was the condition that if the B.C. Supreme Court of Appeal rules against the province in the fall, the collective agreement could be torn up within 60 days.
“It has galvanized teachers,” he said.
Several teachers on the picket line mentioned the B.C. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, which the government is appealing, that found the teachers’ rights to limit class size and composition were illegally stripped from the contract in 2002.
“It is ironic in that they give us a curriculum wherein we have to teach executive, legislative and judicial powers, and yet they are completely ignoring the judicial and calling it an opinion,” said teacher Trevor O’Rourke.
Fellow New Westminster Secondary School teacher Shirley Chan agreed.
“I am just really shocked that the government can get away with breaking the law and going against what the Supreme Court rules. That is just not right,” she said.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender said Monday the government had submitted a comprehensive proposal to the teachers’ union over the weekend.
“The ball is squarely in their court at this stage,” he told reporters.
While the pickets will remain up this week, the Labour Relations Board ruled last week that provincial exams are an essential service, so those will go ahead.
John Gaiptman, superintendent of schools for New Westminster, said Monday there will be a separate entrance, free from picketers for teachers and students who must be present for exams.
The fate of summer school still hangs in the balance.
“We are urging students who want to be part of summer school to enroll as soon as they can. So the sooner they do that the better, and we are anticipating we will have summer school, but we have not heard yet,” Gaiptman said.
Gaiptman said most students took their belongings home last week when the strike looked imminent, but that for those who didn’t there will be an opportunity to come back and get their things without having to cross a picket line should the strike continue.
Teachers have been without a contract since June of 2013. In addition to wages, the main sticking points are class size and composition.
