Abbott to order end to teachers’ job action

Union dismayed after senior labour ministry offi cial concludes negotiated deal is ‘ unlikely’

Education Minister George Abbott has asked his staff to work through the weekend to prepare back- to- work legislation aimed at ending a labour dispute with B. C. teachers.

Abbott made the announcement Thursday after a senior official in the Labour Ministry concluded a negotiated deal was “very unlikely.”

“I am satisfied now that for the days, weeks and probably months ahead, a freely negotiated collective agreement is an impossibility,” he said. “I will be moving as quickly as we can on this.”

He said students are paying the price for the dispute and he can no longer “in good conscience” allow the job action to continue.

A back- to- work bill could be introduced in the B. C. legislature as early as next week.

The B. C. Teachers’ Federation, which represents 41,000 teachers across the province, has been without a contract since last June.

Unionized teachers began pressing their demands in September by refusing to meet with administrators, supervise playgrounds or prepare report cards.

The union said Thursday that it was dismayed by the haste with which Abbott plans to bring in legislation. The union favours trying a mediator and, possibly, an arbitrator to resolve the dispute.

Bullying legislation will just exacerbate the situation,” union president Susan Lambert said. “It will make matters worse.”

NDP education critic Robin Austin agreed and called for a mediator to “crack some heads” and get negotiations moving. “I think that’s a better way than using the heavy hand of the legislature to come and impose a contract.”

Abbott said he’d consider mediation for issues not related to money. But he said there’s no way a mediator could bridge the $ 2- billion divide between government and union on compensation.

Teachers want a 15- per- cent pay hike, while the government refuses to budge from its “net- zero mandate.”

The mandate dictates that public sector employees can only get a wage increase if they find savings elsewhere in their contracts.

Abbott said other unions, representing 75 per cent of public sector employees in the province, have been able to reach deals within the mandate. He blamed the “political culture” within the teachers’ union for its long tradition of stalemates and back- to- work orders.

“The fact it has happened many times over the last 30 years doesn’t make me feel any better about this,” he said.

“I’m deeply disappointed by this. I’m sad about this, because I had hoped as an education minister to turn the dial on the relationship with the B. C. Teachers’ Federation.”

The union, in turn, blames the government for stripping its contracts and cutting support to public education.

“What we have is a public education system under attack,” Lambert said.

Teachers have planned afterschool protests for Monday, but Lambert wouldn’t say whether job action will escalate to a walkout if the government introduces legislation.

“We’re a very democratic organization,” she said. “We’ll ask our members what their opinion is on what we should be doing next.”

Any bill legislating teachers back to work could also tackle issues of class size and composition, which refers to classroom limits on special- needs students.

The government and the union have been in negotiations on that issue since last April when the B. C. Supreme Court struck down Bills 27 and 28, which removed teachers’ rights to bargain class size and composition. The judge gave the two sides a year to resolve the issues.

In recent days, Abbott has hinted that he might be willing to abolish rules that allow only three special- needs students per class. He said he agrees with the Greater Victoria School Board and the Victoria Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils that the current rules are arbitrary and discriminatory.