BCTF got along with Barrett government

Re: “NDP, teachers split at convention,” Les Leyne, Nov. 24.

Les Leyne’s claim that the B.C. Teachers’ Federation “has yet to find a government with which it can get along” is not correct. During the NDP’s Dave Barrett years, 1972-1975, the BCTF got along with Education Minister Eileen Dailly very well. Minister Dailly, who had experience as a teacher, trustee and Burnaby school board chair, understood the dynamics of classrooms very well. Also, contracts were negotiated locally and were much more easily settled.

However, it is true that since 1987, when the BCTF achieved full collective bargaining rights, the government’s B.C. Public School Employers’ Association representatives and the teachers’ union representatives have never negotiated without considerable conflict.

During my years as a teacher in Vancouver schools (1974-2002), I experienced three teacher strikes.

One of these strikes was finally settled with teachers taking no pay raise to secure class size and composition language. In 2002, the Liberals broke this contract, and it took the BCTF almost 15 years of court battles before the Supreme Court restored the language.

During those years of NDP Opposition, then-education critic John Horgan made fiery speeches in the legislature about how wrong the Liberals had been to break the teachers’ contract by taking away class-size and composition language. Teachers rallied to the NDP and helped the party to defeat the Liberals in 2017.

Is it any wonder, then, that during the present contract negotiations, teachers are upset that these vital clauses are being resisted by the NDP government’s representatives?

Dr. Starla H. Anderson, EdD Victoria