Bell- to- bell work this week, BCTF promises
Union won’t discuss what happens after break
Public school teachers were expected to end their strike and return to their classrooms today, where they will continue the limited job action they began in September and consider future protests against a government bill now working its way through the legislature.
Although they are legally permitted to strike one day a week until Bill 22 is proclaimed, teachers and students in many districts are heading toward a two-week spring break that starts after classes Friday. The union wouldn’t comment Wednesday on what it plans to do next, but said teachers would only work from bell-to-bell this week.
While not all schools close for a two- week break, many in Metro do, including those in Vancouver, Surrey, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Abbotsford, Maple Ridge- Pitt Meadows, Langley and Richmond. If the BCTF decides to strike one day next week, it must provide two school days’ notice, as required by a B. C. Labour Relations Board ruling.
School districts that have a one- week break won’t start holidays until March 17, the same weekend hundreds of teacher unionists will gather in Vancouver for the B. C. Teachers’ Federation annual general meeting and the election of table officers. Thus far, only president Susan Lambert faces a challenger — Rick Guenther of Abbotsford.
Lambert was greeted with cheers Wednesday when she addressed hundreds of supporters outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on the final day of the union’s three- day strike.
She assured them the BCTF is winning the battle against Bill 22 in the court of public opinion, even as the Liberals try to nudge the legislation through second reading.
“They’re a government in free fall — and the likelihood of this government surviving to June 2013 resembles that of the proverbial snowflake in hell,” Lambert said to applause, referring to the provincial election slated for May next year.
Teacher discussions on a private BCTF message board, leaked to The Vancouver Sun, suggest some are unhappy about giving up three days’ pay to strike. “The government is laughing all the way to the bank and we look, deservedly so, to be rank amateurs,” said one commenter, after reports that the Education Ministry is saving $ 11 million a day in teacher pay.
Others suggested a better way to apply pressure is to withdraw from extracurricular activities, but one noted that teachers tried that in 2002 and 2005 but it didn’t last. “The huge question is do we have the resolve to do this or will many cave when the volleyball team has no coach or the Grade 7s didn’t get their camping trip.”
Earlier in the day, Education Minister George Abbott urged Lambert to call him to discuss Bill 22 in detail, saying she has been misrepresenting the bill in her public comments.
“I’ll clear my schedule off today, tomorrow, any day of the week to sit down and talk to the teachers’ federation about their concerns re the bill,” he told reporters. “The consequence of not having a fulsome discussion about what government intends often yields a vacuum which then can be filled with nefarious assumptions.”