VANCOUVER - B.C. students are heading back to school today at a time of great uncertainty in public education.
Teachers, unhappy with the government’s position in contract talks, are poised to begin the first phase of a job action, aimed primarily at administration but bound to have some effect on the province’s 540,696 full-time students and their parents, too.
While there will be no picket lines for now, teachers will not attend staff meetings, host meet-the-teacher nights, write report cards, order supplies, administer standardized tests or supervise student detentions.
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation says its members will also shun other supervision responsibilities, which has resulted in at least four school districts — Central Okanagan, North Okanagan-Shuswap, Vernon and Prince George — cancelling recess and planning to dismiss students 15 minutes earlier than usual. Not all districts rely on teachers for playground supervision, and some others are asking non-union staff to pitch in.
Participation in extracurricular activities, such as school clubs and sports activities, will be individual decisions by teachers.
“We’re starting the year under a cloud,” Education Minister George Abbott said in a back-to-school message to parents over the weekend. “While I am disappointed at the timing, the BCTF president has assured me the pending job action won’t affect student learning and that teachers will continue to focus on students in the classroom.”
Union president Susan Lambert has suggested the action might even benefit students. “Teachers’ attention will be totally focused on the students in their classrooms and not on the many bureaucratic and administrative tasks that take away from the joy of teaching and learning,” she stated in a release, adding that teachers will still communicate with parents as needed.
Despite that promise, Abbott said he’s worried parents may not get the information they need about their children’s progress, and called for “cool heads” to focus on honest and open negotiations. The BCTF and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, the bargaining arm for local boards of education, readily admit there’s been no progress since talks commenced March 1.
Indeed, they’re still arguing over which issues should be negotiated at the provincial table and which should be resolved locally.
Although negotiations are still underway, many worry that the union’s job action may develop into a full-scale strike before long. While education is designated as an essential service in B.C., that didn’t stop the BCTF from shutting down schools for 10 days during the last job action in 2005, although it was fined $500,000 for contempt of court.
The BCTF and the Liberal government have a troubled history. Not only has bargaining been fruitless, but the parties are also deadlocked in separate attempts to resolve a dispute dating back to 2002, when the Liberals ended the union’s power to bargain class size and composition. In doing so, the government violated teachers’ rights, a court ruled recently, while giving it 12 months to correct the situation.
In addition, Abbott plans to introduce legislation this fall to fix the dysfunctional B.C. College of Teachers, which is another sore spot.
The BCTF has not indicated what percentage wage increase it wants but has proposed improvements in benefits that the employers’ association says would cost more than $2 billion, a figure disputed by the union.
Abbott doesn’t deny that B.C. pays its teachers less than several other provinces, but he says there is no money for salary increases. Furthermore, if the government boosted pay for teachers, it would have to renegotiate contracts with other public-sector unions that settled under the Liberals’ net-zero mandate, he added.
B.C. spends $4.72 billion a year on public school operating costs.
NDP leader Adrian Dix sidestepped questions Monday on whether his party supports higher wages for teachers, saying his main concern is that 14,000 classrooms in B.C. “did not meet the government’s own class size and composition limits.”
Dix said the government should stop playing politics with the impasse and negotiate in good faith at the bargaining table.
The first few days of the new school year might not be much different from any other year, since the B.C. Labour Relations Board has ruled that teachers must work with administrators to organize classrooms and assess special needs. That requirement will end Sept. 10 in elementary schools and Sept. 17 in secondary schools.
Meanwhile, organizers of the annual Terry Fox run later this month are worried about the effect BCTF job action could have on the event.
Terry Fox Foundation national director Brett Kohli said Monday that his group will be contacting education officials this week.
Kohli said about 1,300 schools in B.C. held Terry Fox runs last year.
jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com
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