Teachers hope for weekend breakthrough

By MICHELE YOUNG and MIKE YOUDS

Teachers picketing Kamloops schools today (Friday) had their fingers crossed that 11th-hour bargaining on the weekend will bring an end to a three-week labour standoff.

“I think certainly the teachers and all of the support staff hope a settlement is reached,” said Bill Haug on the picket line at Sa-Hali secondary Friday. It was the third day that rotating provincial strikes shut down schools in School District 73.

“It’s been a tough three weeks,” Haug said.

“We are hopeful,” said Sa-Hali secondary teacher Kerri Halliwell.
She and Hogue said the B.C. Teachers’ Federation has shown flexibility at the bargaining table by reducing its wage demands, while the provincial government continues to ignore Supreme Court decisions backing the BCTF on class size and composition. The province, however, won a legal victory in having exams declared an essential service.

A high level of cynicism remained on the picket line over the government’s willingness to reach an agreement, particularly when it’s saving money in wages withheld during the course of the job action. The essential service declaration further reduces pressure on the government to bargain in good faith, they said.

On Friday, rotating walkouts hit schools in the Kamloops-Thompson district along with 17 others throughout B.C. Earlier this week, teachers voted 86 per cent in favour of going to a full-scale strike, which goes into effect Tuesday.

Outside of NorKam secondary, math teacher Bill Morgan and teacher/librarian Gregg Hafeli waved at honking supporters.

“We’d rather be inside teaching,” Morgan said. “The pressure’s on both sides.”

Both teachers held out hope the B.C. Teachers Federation and the B.C. Public Service Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) could reach an agreement this weekend.

“We are already limited in the type of job action we can do,” Hafeli said, noting the last job action ended with teachers being legislated back to work.

“The government has already been ‘convicted,’ essentially, of bargaining in bad faith.”

Sa-Hali teacher Chris McManus noted that the B.C. Public School Employers Association (BCPSEA) has declared that provincial exams be held with no more than 25 students per class.

Regular instructional classrooms, which require more supervision, are capped at 30.

“It’s a way to get more teachers to cross the picket line,” Haug said.

“We become an essential service when it suits the government’s purpose.”

During the last public-sector negotiations, other unions got increases of two per cent in each of two years. Teachers got zero, which is what they’re being offered again. If they accepted that, they’d be going four years without an increase, Hafeli said.

“It’s tough when the media focus is on the money,” but class size and other issues are also on the BCTF priority list, Hafeli said.

“We have classes with compositions that are unmanageable to teachers and unfair to students.”

On Monday, teachers will hold study sessions, so there are no classes that day, either.

Next week’s looming strike gave students and teachers little time Thursday to mark what could be the end of the school year in Kamloops.

Kirsten Christianson, president of the Dufferin elementary Parent Advisory Council, said Friday the way everything worked out didn’t allow for much closure.

“My kids were really sad yesterday, having to leave so abruptly,” she said.

“They didn’t get to have any goodbyes. . . . The teachers there were really upset. The impact on their relationship with the kids — it’s been tough.”

Christianson spoke on her own behalf, not that of the PAC.

“I thought it was unfortunate for the sudden close,” she said.

“It’s been sad. The teachers, since the government imposed the lockout conditions, have not been able to do their jobs properly. They’d rather be doing what they do. They’re stressed. They’re rushing around trying to get things done. It wasn’t working.”

The Dufferin PAC had a family fun day set for next week, but for other reasons, it was moved to Wednesday of this week. Still, teachers with kids at the school weren’t able to attend because the event was on the school property.

A former teacher who chose to stay home with her two children, Christianson said she’s heard parents weigh in on both sides of the labour dispute.

“But I support the teachers. Having been in my son’s classroom, what the teachers are asking for is very much needed,” she said.

Her children are in Grades two and four, so they aren’t fully aware of the issues going on. Her daughter was bothered that she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to one of her teachers. And Christianson is wondering about marks.

“Are we getting report cards? How do we know?”

Willemyn Longquist, chairwoman of the District Parent Advisory Council, said the frustration level among parents has reached a new high.

“The parents I have talked to when my kids go to school, they’re deeply frustrated at this point,” Longquist said. “For myself, as a parent, my daughter came home crying yesterday.”

Elementary students, particularly younger ones, are less able to understand the circumstances. Her daughter was upset because she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her teacher after being told it would probably be the last day of school.

“It’s an entirely unexpected situation to them (young students). To be told it’s the last day of school is really shocking to some of them.”

The role of PACs is to advocate for families, not to take sides in the dispute, yet families are feeling the impact.

“I’ve heard some parents say that even if there is an agreement reached, they’re not sending their kids back to school,” Longquist said. “I don’t think I’d be keeping my children home, but I understand the pressure of where that’s coming from.”

Working parents already on the financial margins now face the additional costs of child care, she said. She also sympathizes with secondary students facing exams, even though those exams will go ahead next week.

“I know a lot of them are worried about what the future holds.”

Outside Lloyd George elementary, the uncertainty was palpable.

“I think what’s happening is the government is saying right now they want a deal, but at the same time it’s kind of hard because they haven’t followed through,” said Peter Nelson, a French immersion teacher-on-call.

“I think what we all want is to finish it up this weekend.”

Hundreds of district teachers are expected to rally on Monday’s study session at Valleyview Arena.

“I think it’s to inform the membership of recent changes and probably to encourage them.”

Morgan said the government’s lockout that prevented teachers from helping students at lunch hours and recess was frustrating.

“It killed us,” he said.

Despite all that has gone on between the government and teachers, Hafeli remained hopeful that talks between the two sides this weekend will result in some common ground.

“We have to be optimistic,” he said.