BCTF News

Table of Contents

1. A decisive vote on the AGM Action Plan 
2. Letters for parents on extra-curricular and Bill 22 
3. The LRB orders reporting 
4. BCTF seeks a further court date over Bills 27 and 28 
5. A biased mediation 
6. Learning Improvement Fund is no improvement 

A decisive vote on the AGM Action Plan

Teachers delivered a clear decision on the BCTF Action Plan by voting 73% in favour of continuing resistance to Bill 22. Teachers realize that Bill 22 poses a serious and wide-reaching threat to the future of quality public education in BC.
Bill 22:

• wipes out nearly all current class-size and composition limits.
• eliminates the need for consultation with teachers on class size and composition.
• robs teachers of their constitutional right to free collective bargaining.
   
• legislates net zero-no salary or benefit improvements.
   
• imposes the employers' concession demands regarding seniority, post and fill, layoff and recall, evaluation and dismissal.
   
• ignores the ruling of the BC Supreme Court which found that contract-stripping legislation of 2002 was illegal and unconstitutional.
   
• repeals the offending legislation on one page, and declares it back in force on the next.
   

Adding insult to injury, Bill 22 establishes a so-called cooling-off period and sets up a sham mediation process that requires teachers to be complicit in the stripping of basic rights and protections from their collective agreement.

Letters for parents on extra-curricular and Bill 22

Parents are asking teachers why they have decided to curtail extra-curricular activities. In response it is important to stress how concerned teachers are for the future of public education when we witness the damage a decade of cuts has done to class size, the availability of learning specialists, and the provision of services for students with special needs. In addition the passage of Bill 22 makes a bad situation even worse and severely limits the ability of teachers to advocate for improved conditions and adequate funding for public education. Withdrawing voluntary activities is one of the very few remaining ways that teachers can draw attention to this dire situation and affirm their commitment to a viable future for public education.
 

The "for Parents" tab on the BCTF home page will take you to two letters that you can use when talking to parents about Bill 22 and extra-curricular activities. Go directly to bctf.ca/parents.aspx.

The LRB orders reporting

The BCTF has stated consistently that teachers are keeping parents informed of student progress and that formal report cards are not essential. This had formally been agreed to by the employer and the union in the Phase 1 order. Consequently, the BCTF argued strenuously at the latest hearing that the application by BCPSEA was unnecessary.
 

In a disappointing decision, the LRB vice-chair issued an order requiring teachers to complete retroactive reports. BCPSEA had asked for a declaration that teachers, by not providing reports, were engaged in an illegal strike. The LRB did not agree but nevertheless ordered that brief, abridged student reports be developed, and submitted to administration on April 27.
 

In arguing its case at the LRB, BCPSEA did not talk of the necessity, relevance, or usefulness of reports and abandoned its argument that report cards were needed to identify vulnerable students. The decision they sought, stripped easily of these spurious arguments, was essentially a management rights or power and control issue. They sought and won the right to order work to be done. The educational soundness of the work was entirely irrelevant to this decision. This is insulting to professional teachers.

BCTF seeks a further court date over Bills 27 and 28

In April 2011, Supreme Court Justice Griffin ruled that much of Bills 27 and 28 was unconstitutional, specifically the parts that stripped our collective agreement of all class-size/composition provisions, voided language regulating hours of work and prohibiting negotiations in those areas.
 

The court gave the government a year to deal with the repercussions of the ruling.
 

In the months following the ruling, BCTF table officers and staff met with government on 13 occasions to discuss the repercussions of the decision.
 

Part of Bill 22 was in response to the court ruling. Government repealed the sections of the School Act ruled unconstitutional and, in the same paragraph, re-implemented them word-for-word with two exceptions. The section of the School Act that
voided contract language on hours of work was repealed, and our right to bargain class size/ composition and staffing ratios was restored, but not until July 1, 2013 (11 years after it was removed). None of our stripped language was restored and we received no compensation for a decade without critical working condition protections.
 

The BCTF will now go back to Justice Griffin and argue that the government has not adequately complied with the ruling. We want our bargaining rights restored and stripped language returned immediately, plus compensation for the last decade. The government has taken the position that they have complied with the ruling.
 

We expect to be back in front of Justice Griffin sometime next school year.

A biased mediation

Our last bargaining session, number 78, was February 22. Bargaining ceased when the government introduced Bill 22. The bill suspended job action, and replaced collective bargaining with a government directed "mediation process." The terms of reference that bind the mediator, mandate concessions that must be included in the new collective agreement regarding evaluation, employer control of professional development and assignment of teachers.
 

The BCTF views the mediation as a farce intended to lend credibility to contract stripping. The government appointed Dr. Charles Jago to act as mediator. The BCTF has objected to the appointment of Jago because he has no experience as a mediator, no experience with K to 12 education, and is too closely tied to the Liberal government.
 

Dr. Jago declined to step down. We have asked the Labour Relations Board to overturn his appointment.
 

In the meantime, because the LRB denied our request for an interim injunction, BCTF table officers will meet with Jago and continue to express our concern with the process.
 

Learning Improvement Fund is no improvement

Included in the provincial budget for this year was a so called Learning Improvement Fund (LIF) designed to address class-size and composition issues by providing $165 million over three years ($30/$60/$75). The $30 million the government saved during the three-day strike apparently has been added to year one to make $60 million. These figures should be set against the estimated $330 million this government has saved each year over 10 years as a result of Bills 27 and 28 and the stripping of our collective agreements.
 

The LIF is not nearly enough to restore all of the FTE positions lost since 2002. Before Bills 27 and 28 (2001-02), there were 33,275 FTE teachers, including 1,292 FTE positions protected in teacher collective agreements to meet class-size and composition provisions. In 2011-12, there are 30,407 FTE teachers, a decrease of 2,868 FTE teaching positions since 2001-02. This includes a loss of 1,489 FTE specialist teachers.
 

With school districts about to struggle to balance shortfalls arising from the freeze in operating grants funding over three years, and with no funds to offset rising costs such as inflation (estimated at $112 million for 2012-13) there is every possibility that teaching positions will be eliminated thus negating any benefit from the LIF.