{"id":24783,"date":"2014-09-04T20:14:28","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T12:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=24783"},"modified":"2014-09-04T18:18:22","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T10:18:22","slug":"b-c-premier-urges-teachers-union-suspend-strike-union-vows-indefinite-unrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/04\/b-c-premier-urges-teachers-union-suspend-strike-union-vows-indefinite-unrest\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. Premier urges teachers\u2019 union suspend strike, union vows indefinite unrest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christy<\/a>
Christy Clark. Photo by kris kr\u00fcg<\/a> \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VANCOUVER\u2014British Columbia\u2019s premier chastised the teachers\u2019 union and urged its members to cast aside strike action on Wednesday, inciting a defensive response from the teachers\u2019 federation.<\/p>\n

Christy Clark stood beside her education minister and outlined her view of the steps required to get the situation rolling towards resolution in what was her first public address about the brewing dispute since the strike indefinitely shuttered schools.<\/p>\n

Teachers must suspend the strike while the two sides negotiate, so that children can immediately start their school year, and the union must alter and introduce a \u201creasonable\u201d proposal at the bargaining table, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only ones who can end this strike or suspend it is the teachers\u2019 union,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cIf we really want to put students first and we really care that kids are at the top of the agenda, we\u2019ll all make sure they\u2019re in school tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark promised that if the conditions were met, the government would start discussing what she began characterizing as the \u201csingle most important issue\u201d for her, classroom size and composition. That could only happen if the union ended its bid to obtain benefits in the contract like an extra day off for high school teachers, unlimited massages and a $5,000 signing bonus, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we\u2019re there, it makes it impossible for us to get to the things that I think really matter to parents…,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Two hours later, B.C. Teachers\u2019 Federation president Jim Iker accused the government of going to great lengths to make it appear the gap between the sides was a massive gulf and vowed strikers would march the lines until they got movement from the government.<\/p>\n

He said Clark was \u201cmistaken\u201d in her portrayal of the union\u2019s demands, noting several items had already been taken off the table, and described the government\u2019s $375 million interim offer for dealing with special needs in the classroom as \u201cstatus quo\u201d because it would only be used to hire teachers previously laid off due to cuts.<\/p>\n

He reiterated the union\u2019s proposal for two new multimillion dollar funds to hire more teachers and deal with grievances as the only way to rectify the problem, while saying the union was still willing to bargain on the exact amounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs fixing a system that\u2019s been underfunded for 12 years expensive? Yes, of course it is,\u201d he told reporters at a news conference, before adding his own jabs. \u201cBut the government needs to rethink its priorities and put kids first. If they can build a roof on BC Place for half-a-billion dollars or give a private power company in California $750 million, we can afford to invest in our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iker provided his own list of the roadblocks to getting a settlement: that government has been unwilling to engage in bargaining talks, that its negotiators have offered no counter-proposals in spite of the union\u2019s concessions and the insistence on keeping a clause in the contract that the union believes negates its bargaining rights.<\/p>\n

He said the strike could end if the B.C. Public School Employers\u2019 Association, the government\u2019s bargaining arm, dropped \u201cE80,\u201d a clause that he describes as overriding provisions related to class size and composition, a right the union already established in two B.C. court decisions.<\/p>\n

The union frequently cites the B.C. Supreme Court decisions, now on appeal by the government, that ruled its rights to negotiate those issues were illegally removed by government legislation in 2002.<\/p>\n

Clark introduced that legislation when she was B.C.\u2019s education minister and said Wednesday it was imperative the animosity against her be dropped so all sides could move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t good for anybody. We all have to get past the emotion here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to put this in the context of today, and today, kids are out of school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers mounted rotating strikes for three weeks last May and attempted to heighten pressure with a full-scale strike in June, ejecting half-a-million students from the classroom. Picketing teachers are getting no strike pay after the union coffers ran dry.<\/p>\n

No new talks are scheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER\u2014British Columbia\u2019s premier chastised the teachers\u2019 union and urged its members to cast aside strike action on Wednesday, inciting a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","mauthors-tamsyn-burgmann","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}