B.C. Education Minister George Abbott announced Thursday that he intends to introduce legislation next week to end the ongoing teacher job action, and impose a contract on B.C. teachers. The decision comes after the release Thursday morning of a report by assistant deputy minister for industrial relations Trevor Hughes, stating a negotiated settlement between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the government’s bargaining agent, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, would be unlikely.
Abbott wouldn’t give specifics about the terms of the teacher contract he plans to impose, but said it would conform to the Liberal government’s net-zero mandate of no wage increases for public sector employees for the next two years.
“We have three-quarters of public employees, with 100-plus contracts negotiated with the net-zero mandate,” Abbott said. “We have to proceed on that basis.”
Abbott said he was disappointed and saddened at having to impose the contract, but said he felt he had no other option.
“Teachers will be upset, but in some cases they will be relieved,” he said. “The union leadership will take a dim view of it, but I will not let a dispute among adults affect kids.”
Abbott said he was concerned about the absence of report cards and collaborative meetings between teachers and administrators.
“It’s unacceptable that this situation continues,” he said. “When the adults can’t come to a respectful agreement, it’s always the students that pay the price.”
Abbott said some districts have seen a spike in failure rates, which he attributes to the ongoing teacher job action.
However, Maple Ridge Teachers' Association president George Serra believes the province never had any intention of negotiating with teachers.
“This was their plan all along, so it’s not surprising,” he said. “They had one goal in mind, and that was to convince the public we were at an impasse so they could legislate us back to work.”
If the government was serious about reaching a fair contract with teachers, they would have considered appointing a mediator to settle the dispute, according to Serra, as was done in 2006.
“Kids in public school should not be made to suffer because the Liberals can’t balance their budget,” he said. “That’s too big a sacrifice.”
Given that both sides were close to $2 billion apart in contract talks, Abbott said mediation would have done little good to bridge that gap. However, he added that non-monetary issues in the contract dispute, such as class size, composition and seniority, “may benefit from the use of a mediator.”
However, Serra said he believes the province will use this latest legislated contract to strip more provisions from teacher contracts.
“They are getting everything they want and are denying us of the process to get anything we need.”
As for what’s next, Serra said an illegal walk-out is on the table.
“At the end of the day, it will be one of the possibilities we’ll be looking at,” he said. “But whatever we decide on, it will be voted on by teachers.”
Teachers across the province have been taking part in ongoing job action since September, when contract talks between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the province’s bargaining agent, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, broke down last summer. Teachers have been without a contract since June.
The BCTF proposed a three-year contract that would give teachers a 15-per-cent increase over that span. BCTF estimates the contract will cost an extra $300 million per year. But BCPSEA pegs that number at upwards of $500 million in the first year alone.