TENTATIVE AGREEMENT

B.C. Liberal government negotiators and BC Teachers Federation have come to an tentative agreement that may mean the end of this several month standoff. Once details are also agreed upon today, Teachers will have to ratify this, as will the Liberal leadership. With this hope, school may begin on Monday 22nd September 2014.
UPDATE 5:02 PM Teachers will vote Thurs., 7.5% wage increase over 5 yrs. plus other items I’ll mention later.

CAN BINDING ARBITRATION WORK?

Resolving the Contract Impasse between Federation of Teachers versus Provincial Government

The BCFT and the government are in the midst of negotiating a new collective agreement. Negotiations have not gone well. The two parties are far enough apart and each is resistant to further accommodation that potential mediator Vince Ready walked away from the stalemate. Think about it. Over the past three months, both sides have not even met in the same room around a table yet. What kind of collective bargaining is that?

$2 BILLION. I'M DISGUSTED.

$2 billion. I am disgusted. Government negotiators claim teachers’ demands will cost that additional amount. I’m not disgusted by the number itself but by the spin. What is missing from this self-serving BCPSCA assertion is the truth that over the past decade $2 billion was channeled out of public education. Yes. Public education was reduced by $2 billion. School children were dispossessed of $2 billion that had been servicing their classroom experience. So, in fact, teachers are asking for funding that students and their teachers used to have. They are asking the BC Liberal government to return the money that they took away and spend elsewhere. Where and when was

this money withdrawn? It is unrelated to their salaries. Salary is not all that teachers talking about. They also speak of class size and composition with regards to their contract. For several years teachers took zero percent increases in order to sign contracts which included size and composition components because these affect working and learning conditions. The greater the class size, the less individual attention per student. Simple. Class composition considers educational and emotional needs of students and some students require assistance to achieve outcomes comparable to their peers. Some students need IEPs, Individual Education Plans which provide behavioural and or academic approaches and goals for success. Again simple. The more IEPs in a class, the greater the complexity of the learning environment for the entire class and the greater the burden on a teacher to effectively manage and instruct all his or her students. So, I repeat, teachers gave up salary raises in order to bargain for limits to class size and the number of IEPs per class. Then in 2002 the government destroyed those negotiated terms by removing class size and composition language. The Supreme Court of B.C. on two occasions now, has told the Liberal government that it’s dissolution of the negotiated contract was illegal. It has been told to fund BC public education to accommodate that earlier contract language. By the government’s own calculation that will cost how much? Yes, $2 billion. Teachers are asking this government for that which it is legally required to pay by the Supreme Court. They are asking the government to respect the rule of law.

ARE TEACHERS ASKING FOR TOO MUCH $$

In B.C. the Premier’s salary has risen from $117,000 in 2001, to Christy Clark’s 2014 annual salary of $194,000. That’s fair, she believes.
Typically an MLA in 2001 earned an approximate base salary of $72,000 and today your MLA enjoys a 41.3% increase to $102,000 base.
Is it similarly fair that a B.Ed grad in 2001 earned $60,000 as a teacher, and now receives the equivalent over these 13 years of a 26.8% increase to $76,000.

Nova Scotia’s teachers are the lowest pain teachers in Canada. Second to them are British Columbia’s teachers. When the cost of living in each of those provinces is compared, B.C. teachers are understandably experiencing the pain.

TEACHERS, YOU HAVE A DIFFICULT CHOICE TO MAKE

Education Minister Peter Fassbender and BCTFf Pres Jim Iker

Teachers will have to decide whether to give their BCTF an overwhelming mandate to play hardball at the bargaining table or to say adamantly, strike a deal ASAP. Teachers are angry. If you are a teacher, how angry are you? Are you angry enough to go on full strike and finish off the school year that way? Do you agree with the demands that your BC Teachers Federation is making?

If as I am led to believe, wages are not the primary objective but of more crucial concern are class sizes and composition, then teachers need to tell their representatives to bring the salary demand more in line with the government offer. Negotiation logic expects that the government then will be more inclined to address class size and composition demands.

The most recent ask by the union is for a pay hike of 9.75 per cent over four years, not including the cost-of-living allowance that compensates for inflation. That reflects an increase of 3 per cent in the first year, followed by 2.25 per cent each year over the following three years. So while 9.75% doesn’t sound like much, the impact is larger of course because of the unexpressed cost of living compensation. When the government reads that demand it says the compounded numbers come to a total increase of 14.7%. That doesn’t appear to be a great improvement over the earlier 15.9% BCTF demand.

The B.C. Public School Employers Association (the government’s bargaining vehicle) earlier offered 7.3% over six years. That’s a presumptuous offer too, representing no salary increase apart from bare cost of living increases.

I believe that if BCTF made a request for 10% over four years and that includes COLA, as well as the class size and composition proviso, there would be a deal. That demonstrates to government a noteworthy willingness to compromise and it underscores that the primary issues are class size and composition each of which speaks to parents about the desire to provide superior education to children.

WHY TEACH AND WORK IN BC?

I am altering my focus from child protection to education, specifically, the teachers' and the BC government. I may speak about this for a while.

Why Teach and work in BC?

This is the lead of a web page entitled ‘Make a Future’ which is recruitment initiative by the BC Public School Employers’ Association and 60 BC public boards of education, the First Nations Education Steering Committee, and the Ministry of Education. It’s a job board that presents a glamorous description of BC’s beauty, lifestyle and location and compels the reader with, “If you and your family are looking to move, now is the time. Need a little more convincing? Here are a few other reasons to live here:

• BC has some of the lowest income tax rates in the country both for individuals and families
• BC’s healthcare system has some of the best statistics in Canada, including the longest life expectancy of any Canadian province
• The province has a world-class public education system; in fact other countries are looking to BC as a model
• As the world economy shifts to the Asia Pacific region, BC will be (and has always been) the gateway to the Pacific

There has never been a better time to live and work here. Come and see for yourself!”

The last statement should be questioned and the first question should be asked once again and both of them tested with the present negotiation impasse in mind. Has there ever been a better time to live and teach in BC? Why live and teach in BC?

There must surely have been a better time to be a teacher in BC than at the present moment. One would be hard-pressed to expound convincing reasons to teach in BC right now. The most emotional justification from 550,000 public school teachers in this province might be comments such as “This is my home;” and “I love teaching;” and “teaching is honourable.”