THE North Shore's union officials and a government MLA all say they won't back down in the ongoing, escalating labour dispute between teachers and the province.
Starting Tuesday, teachers across B.C. will vote on whether or not to step up their labour action. A confidential draft of their plan obtained by the North Shore News says that if adopted, teachers will continue to teach but will not participate in any government initiatives, show up for any meetings with administrators or volunteer for any extra-curricular activities.
On Monday, the provincial government will argue in front of the Labour Relations Board that Bill 22 requires teachers to resume their normal duties, and a refusal to produce three report cards per school year constitutes illegal strike action.
However, the plan says teachers will write one end-of-year report card for students and will launch a public campaign to oppose the government's Bill 22 legislation.
Lastly, the plan calls for teachers to hold another vote on whether to stage a fullscale strike, and "motivate membership to prepare for the May 2013 provincial election to bring in a new government that will repeal Bill 22."
The document also notes that the B.C. Teachers' Federation will provide "political, legal, and financial support" to any teacher facing disciplinary action. Bill 22 imposes fines of $475 per day to any striking teacher, $2,500 per day for union officials, and $1.3 million per day for the federation itself.
"I would support and encourage members to vote yes," said Robert Millard, president of the West Vancouver Teachers' Association. "We don't have a lot of options at this point. The government has backed us into a corner."
Millard said he and his colleagues don't have much confidence in a mediation process after Education Minister George Abbott appointed former UNBC president Charles Jago as a mediator.
"He has no professional training as a mediator," said Millard. "Given the tension in this process, you want your best and most highly regarded mediator to step up the plate. I've never met the guy. The BCTF executive say he's a nice guy and very professional. But is that the guy you want to step into a mediation role?"
Millard said that while he was concerned that Jago had a role in drafting Bill 22, he's trying to remain optimistic.
"I'm a history teacher," he said. "Oliver Cromwell had a great saying: 'As long as people keep talking, they don't tend to reach for their swords.' So who knows? Anything is better than nothing, but I think it was a bad move from the government and it doesn't show good faith."
As well as offering no new money for teachers, Bill 22 reopens the class size issue in grades 4 onwards, but provides for more pay for teachers facing more than 30 students.
"It doesn't help the education climate," Millard said. "I don't know if teachers would be prepared to do that. Give me 46 kids and pay me another 10 grand? That doesn't help the situation."
Daniel Storms, president of the North Vancouver Teachers' Association, said "it boggles the mind how unfair it is and how indifferent the government is."
"Teachers are trying to deal with legislation that we feel is grossly unfair and we think will be unconstitutional," he said. "It doesn't help a single student in the province."
"We are going to be fighting this bill a bunch of different ways," he said. "Legally we will be challenging the bill. In terms of trying to maintain a public profile about how Bill 22 will increase class sizes beyond the class size limit, we will see classes of more than 30 for grades 4 through 7. That's what going to happen, and it's just shocking to me."
Storms also said Jago was a bad choice to mediate the dispute. "This is not a personal thing against him at all," Storms said, "it's the fact that in the initial conversation with the BCTF he was unable or didn't recognize that you can't be wordsmithing a document and now be the mediator. Whether or not he sat down with the drafters of the bill and said 'Change this paragraph or this semi-colon,' I don't know. But he was at least involved in the planning stages, which to me compromises anyone's ability to be an effective mediator."
Jane Thornthwaite, Liberal MLA for North VancouverSeymour and a former chairwoman of the North Vancouver school district, said Abbott has been "very patient."
"In reality," she said, "it all stems from the government mandate of net zero, which 130 public sector unions had signed on too - begrudgingly, obviously. But they did."
The net zero mandate says that while money can be moved around within a contract, there is no additional money on the table for public employees.
Thornthwaite defended the appointment of Jago, and said his role in originally drafting Bill 22 was limited to tweaking the terms of reference for a mediator, as the government had already approached him for the job if it became necessary.
Regarding teachers' pay, a "me too" clause in several other public contracts, said Thornthwaite, means that any concession to the teachers would have huge consequences.
"This is not just a $2 billion ask from the teachers," she said, "it's an $11 billion ask if we opened up all the public sector union (contracts). It's not going to happen. That would irresponsible of the government."
