Premier Christy Clark wouldn’t say this week how long the government is prepared to let a teachers’ strike drag on in B.C.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Clark said she wouldn’t “speculate about hypotheticals.”
“The teachers’ union needs to come to the table with a proposal that’s realistic,” she said. “I mean for heaven’s sakes, 150,000 other public sector employees who work just as hard have settled for far less. They didn’t get a $5,000 signing bonus. They didn’t get unlimited massage. They didn’t get an extra day off every year.”
Clark called on teachers to get back to work and said their union should compromise on wages and benefits so the parties can focus negotiations on classroom composition.
But Jim Iker, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, told reporters in a subsequent press conference the BCTF had no intention of asking teachers to vote on whether to suspend their strike any time soon. The teachers’ union has already compromised on wages and benefits, he said.
Iker noted the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association first proposed a signing bonus when it offered $1,200 per teacher if an agreement could be reached by June 30.
Iker said teachers have never asked for unlimited massage. He said some teachers wanted up to $3,000 a year for massage to deal with chronic pain, but this proposal was withdrawn. Now the BCTF wants to see massage coverage increased from $500 to $700 a year.
Iker also said the BCTF never proposed an extra day off. He said the BCTF previously proposed that secondary teachers be given two additional days for preparation time. That was taken off the table and replaced with additional prep time mostly for elementary school teachers.
Iker noted the union and the government are only one year and one per cent apart on salaries. When asked whether the BCTF would reduce or remove the signing bonus from the bargaining table, he said the bonus was negotiable.
But he said the government hasn’t made any meaningful moves in months.
“They haven’t added a single new dollar to their proposal to improve the learning conditions for our students since October 2013,” he said.
Clark noted the government has tabled $375 million over five years to improve classroom composition.
But Iker says this money isn’t new and is inadequate to address the problems created over the past 12 years.
“Instead of finding creative ways to solve this dispute and keep schools open, this government is actually trying to prolong the shutdown with their $40-a-day payment scheme [for childcare],” he continued. “That amounts to $12 million a day and $60 million a week in taxpayers’ money that should be put into our education system to give teachers and students more resources.”
The government says the $40 a day comes from strike savings.
Iker said the BCTF relaxed its stance on class size and composition when it proposed two funds to address these problems. The BCTF has proposed a fund of $175 million for the first year, $225 in the second year, to improve classroom learning while teachers and government await a Court of Appeal decision regarding classroom size and composition.
The BCTF has also proposed a $100 million fund to deal with grievances that could flow from court decisions. Iker said the fund would be akin to how the government settled with the Hospital Employees Union for $75 million in 2008.
Iker said the government is trying to negotiate its way out of court decisions with its E80 proposal that would supersede a Court of Appeal decision.
The B.C. Supreme Court has twice ruled the government illegally stripped language about class size and composition from teachers’ contracts.
On whether BCPSEA and the government would strike the E80 proposal, Clark said government would deal with the court decision when it’s made, but she didn’t want to wait to improve class composition until then.
With uncertainty about when classes could start, some wonder how the school calendar could be affected.
Vancouver School Board public relations manager Kurt Heinrich said schools are required to provide 853 teaching hours to kindergarten students, 878 to those in Grades 1 to 7 and 952 for Grades 8 to 12.
The VSB has 180 instructional days scheduled for 2014-2015 and Heinrich said it’s difficult to say when the school calendar would have to be adjusted.
“It’s a really difficult question to answer and one which, fortunately, there’s never been a precedent for,” he said Tuesday.
He said the board didn’t want to speculate on when calendar changes would need to be made. When and if that happens, the Ministry of Education and other school districts would be consulted.
Heinrich told the Courier Aug. 29 that elementary schools would be in “good shape” to reopen whenever classes start. Secondary schools would experience problems with timetabling.
This story has been modified since it was first posted.
