Editorial — Time to legislate teachers back to work
Rallying for the cause. (BCTF photo – Kamloops)
TUESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — Kamloops teachers went back on the pick lines Monday as the standoff between the BCTF and the B.C. Public School Employers Association continues.
And the scheduled start for the new school year is a week away.
There are no outward signs, after a long summer, that anything is going to break in this dispute. Mediator Vince Ready ducked his head in the door and then left, saying he’d return if the two sides appeared ready to negotiate.
BCTF president Jim Iker sounds ever more anxious to get this thing settled but is getting no obvious traction. The BCPSEA and government appear quite willing to wait it out.
It is time for the teachers to be legislated back to work. Not the best solution, but it’s a solution, at least on a temporary basis. It won’t resolve any long-standing issues, but it will get our kids back in the classrooms where they belong.
Premier Clark, quite the politics and stop it, now. Get the teachers back on the job and set up a process for fixing what’s broken after school opens, teachers are working again and kids are getting their education.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Yeah, the situation appears to be entering an endgame scenario where everybody loses. That said, it would be out of character for this govt to do the right thing.
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I think this is the only way to go right now. Clearly nothing is happening at the bargaining table. Resuming picketing is going to accomplish nothing. The teachers will have lost traction over the summer and the Government is not going to capitulate on some of their demands. Another month on the picket line before they are legislated back to work makes no sense at all.
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Legislate them back to work, and then get on with the mediation, and tell the teachers that their ridiculous demands for leave ( and for the ridiculous reasons they have put forward ) will not be considered by the mediator at all.
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Immediate problem addressed by Back to Work legislation, but only if accompanied by appointing a Royal Commission on Education to recommend – even mandate – major restructuring and a workable dispute resolution mechanism that is protected from partisan interference by ideologues.
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Kids don’t belong in a poisoned work place.
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Under different provincial governments in the past, how many times have the teachers been legislated back to work. Legislate them back to work and quickly, the system falls into what we see happening today.
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I don’t understand the last part of the previous comment, but rather than force a conclusion to this mess, I would rather see the game played out a little longer. Let us wait for the effect of public reaction after Sept. 2. Both sides are waiting for that to determine their next move.
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