1/4 Unfortunately, the BCTF rejected our offer to reopen schools while the two sides enter mediation to reach an agreement.- Christy Clark (@christyclarkbc) August 31, 2014
The teachers strike will likely continue well into September after hopes of mediation were crushed, classes were formally cancelled for Tuesday's scheduled opening day, and each side blamed the other.
Some school districts warned parents to brace for a lengthy shutdown of schools.
'We suggest parents make alternative arrangements for the coming week and look to the very real possibility that a resolution may take much longer,' Jordan Tinney, Surrey's superintendent of schools, said in a letter to parents. 'The disruption is especially unsettling when there appears to be no end in sight.
Vancouver and other districts sent similar letters Monday.
2/4 Instead, the BCTF is sticking to its strike and demanding twice as much money as everyone else in the public service has received.- Christy Clark (@christyclarkbc) August 31, 2014
Patti Bacchus, head of the Vancouver school, told the Vancouver Sun she is disappointed schools wouldn't be opening Tuesday. 'This isn't good for anybody,' she said.
Although it is risky for both sides, she said it might be time for binding arbitration, or at least unfettered mediation with a mediator empowered to make public, non-binding recommendations.
'We need to get kids in school,' Bacchus said. 'But it needs to be a deal that's fair - it can't be another heavy-handed deal that's going to end up in court.'
Veteran mediator Vince Ready declared an impasse Saturday after exploratory talks with the union, the B.C. Teachers' Association, and the employer group, the B.C. Public Schools Employer's Association. Ready said the sides are still 'a long, long ways apart' on class composition, benefits and wages.
3/4 That's not fair for the 150,000 dedicated women and men who have reached long-term agreements with affordable raises.- Christy Clark (@christyclarkbc) August 31, 2014
BCTF president Jim Iker called Sunday for Premier Christy Clark to meet with him.
'If the education minister and BCPSEA do not have the authority or the willingness to do what it takes to reach a fair settlement, then Premier Clark needs to become directly involved,' Iker said. 'She can no longer sit on the sidelines.'
4/4 Class comp. is priority #1 -- more educators helping more students. BCTF or CUPE, it doesn't matter because students' needs come first.- Christy Clark (@christyclarkbc) August 31, 2014
Clark posted comments on Facebook Sunday: 'Unfortunately, the BCTF rejected our offer to reopen schools while the two sides enter mediation to reach an agreement. Instead, the BCTF is sticking to its strike and demanding twice as much money as everyone else in the public service has received. That's not fair for the 150,000 dedicated women and men who have reached long-term agreements with affordable raises. Class composition is priority #1 - more educators helping more students. BCTF or CUPE, it doesn't matter because students' needs come first.'
The two sides are close on wages: the government is offering seven per cent over six years and the BCTF is asking for eight per cent over five years.
Where the two sides part ways is on class size and composition. The government is offering to continue its Learning Improvement Fund, worth $75 million annually. The BCTF wants $225 million a year to address class size and composition issues, which that would be primarily used to hire additional teachers.
Teachers will not give up at the bargaining table what we have fought so hard to get back through the courts. #bced #bcpoli- BCTF (@bctf) August 31, 2014
The BCTF is also asking for $225 million more over five years to deal retroactively with grievances planned after winning two B.C. Supreme Court rulings on class size and composition bargaining rights.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender said it comes down to money.
'There is still over $300 million of gap between what the government has put on the table . . . and what the BCTF is asking for,' he said. 'If we were even to consider that, who should we take that money from? Health care? Other social services in the province? Recent timeline of the dispute June 2013 - A two-year contract for B.C.'s teachers expires.
Sept. 2013 - Teachers start their bid in B.C. Supreme Court to have their contract provisions regarding class-size limits and staffing ratios restored to 2002 levels.
Jan. 2014 - Teachers win court case. Justice Susan Griffin finds the government twice passed unconstitutional legislation aimed at stripping teachers of bargaining rights. Griffin finds the province did not negotiate in good faith during 2012 bargaining, and even tried to provoke a strike.
Feb. 2014 - Province appeals decision, with Peter Fassbender saying it would cost government $1 billion. Government received temporary stay of ruling. Fassbender later emails teachers directly, attempting to explain the government's side.
March 2014 - teachers vote 89% in favour of a strike. Initial government offer was for seven per cent increase over six years, followed by raises tied to inflation for a total of ten years. Teachers wanted 13.5 per cent increase over three years.
May 2014 - Government meets teachers' plan for rotating strikes with wage cuts and a partial lockout.
June 2014 - Teachers lower their wage demands to eight per cent over five years, government offer remains at seven per cent over six. Class size and composition continue to be sticky point in negotiations.
June 10, 2014 - The BCTF says its strike pay fund is running dry. Teachers nevertheless vote 86 per cent in favour of a full-scale strike.
June 17, 2014 - schools close on account of dispute.
June 20, 2014 - Both sides agree to mediation with help from Vince Ready, who initially declines the charge.
July 2, 2014 - Mediator and B.C. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kelleher cannot bring the two sides together.
July 16, 2014 - Finance Minister Mike de Jong unveils budget surplus then says there is no plan by government to pass back-to-work legislation before start of school year.
July 31, 2014 - province announces $40 a day contingency plan for parents of young schoolchildren should the strike continue past Sept. 2.
Aug. 8, 2014 - the two sides come together for the first time since schools shut down in June. Both sides call for further negotiations over the next few weeks.
Aug. 27, 2014 - Fassbender calls for a two-week 'stand down' from strike action once mediation begins.
Aug. 28, 2014 - Ready meets with Fassbender, Jim Iker, the president of the BCTF, and James Cameron, the chief negotiator of the BCPSEA.
Aug. 30, 2014 - Ready walks away from the table with both sides too far apart for mediation.
Sept. 2, 2014 - Scheduled start of the 2014/15 school year. With a file from Matthew Robinson, Sun Education Reporter
'We have been clear we are not going to put our fiscal plan in this province into deficit to meet the unrealistic demands of the BCTF.'
Fassbender said in an interview that half of the $300-million gap between the two sides is a $5,000 signing bonus that the teachers are asking for. 'That is just unrealistic. No other public sector union has received that,' he said.
The other half are benefits that are distinct from the grievance fund, he said.
Rob Fleming, the NDP education critic, called Sunday for Fassbender to be relieved of his duties as minister for failing to provide public education to British Columbians.
On Monday, NDP leader John Horgan joined Iker in calling for the premier to become directly involved.
'Your continued absence throughout this crisis shows a lack of leadership when British Columbians need it most,' Horgan said in an letter. 'Our children's education is too important for you to do nothing but tweet platitudes and let an incapable minister continue on a destructive path.
'Your government's funding freeze is unrealistic and counter-productive to achieving your own stated education goals and the ability to achieve an immediate settlement.'
Fassbender said Clark is involved in the dispute.
'It is amazing to me that Mr. Iker and Mr. Horgan think that the premier is not personally involved. The premier is totally engaged and we talk all the time,' Fassbender said.
Bacchus questioned the government's 'affordability zone' and said the share of the provincial budget going to public education has shrunk.
'How come we can't afford public education the way other provinces can?' she asked. 'What was the devastating thing that happened that we can afford so much less for kids now?'
The BCTF says B.C. spends $1,000 less per public school student than the national average.
Fassbender maintained the government has no plans to legislate teachers back to work, something he accused the BCTF of hoping for.
Iker informed his members that Ready told the BCTF that the government is trying to 'negotiate out of the court case.'
He was referring to demands from the employers group. One would say either side could terminate the contract within 60 days of a court decision, but that demand has been withdrawn. The other lays out the government position on class size and composition, but ends with the sentence: 'These provisions supersede and replace all previous articles that addressed class size, composition and staffing levels.'
The BCTF sees this sentence as an 'escape clause' for the government in the continuing court case.
The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled, twice, that teachers' constitutional rights were violated a decade ago when bargaining of class size, class composition and specialist teacher ratios was stripped from their collective agreement. The province has appealed.
Iker said the BCTF had trimmed $125 million from its proposal, while BCPSEA 'did not bring one new penny to the table. Nothing new for our students learning conditions or our teachers working conditions.'
The BCTF said Ready is monitoring the situation and could become involved again if he thinks the impasse is broken.
No one knows exactly how long a strike could drag on, but in 2011, a Labour Relations Board ruling said that schools could be closed for up to two weeks without 'serious and immediate disruption to the provision of educational programs.'
Fassbender said the employer is not considering asking for a similar ruling in the current dispute.
'We want a negotiated settlement at the table. That is where it should be happening. It should not be happening in any other venue - the legislature, or the courts or the LRB - it should be happening at the negotiating table,' Fassbender said.
Beyond two weeks, the report ruled that allowable disruption to education would vary depending on a student's grade or the time of year in which the disruption occurred. But even at that point, he would allow teachers to strike one day a week, with their pay reduced accordingly.
Fassbender urged parents with schoolchildren to register for financial support from the province as a way to offset some of their added expenses incurred during the strike. Under the program, parents can claim $40 in assistance per day, per eligible student 12 years old and under, to be paid out after an agreement is reached. The launch of the program was frustrated when a link to the application for assistance was not working for part of Sunday, a glitch that was fixed by Monday.
Teachers went on strike in June, closing schools for the last two weeks of the year, after more than a year and a half of failed negotiations.
Post By http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/09/02/first-day-of-school-may-be-a-long-way-off-in-b-c-districts-warn-parents/
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