BCTF president announces rotating job action to begin next week
By Nelson Daily Staff
Parents in the West Kootenay/Boundary school districts should make alternate daycare arrangements for next week after BCTF president Jim Iker announced Tuesday teachers will stage a rotating strike May 26-29.
Iker said the job action is in response to the threat of rollbacks made last week by government negotiators.
“Last week, teachers were hopeful when they saw the government and BCPSEA (B.C. Public School Employer’s Association) put out an olive branch by backing off the unrealistic 10-year term,” said Iker during a Tuesday morning press conference.
“But the next day, hope that this government would start negotiating in good faith faded when the employer announced a series of threats around wage rollbacks, lockouts, and attempts to divide teachers, parents, and students.”
The provincial government is offered teachers $1,200 bonus if a new collective bargaining agreement is reached with the BCTF before the end of the school year.
However, the BCPSEA announced last week it was threatening to cut teachers’ pay by five per cent in retaliation for the limited job action teachers started last month.
The job action begins Monday with every district in the province closed for at least on day. The BCTF has divided the province into four zones.
Kootenay Lake School District is scheduled for shutdown Thursday, May 29 while Kootenay/Columbia and Arrow Lakes Districts will close Tuesday, May 27 and Boundary schools Wednesday, May 28.
Iker said key issues for the BCTF are class size limits, class size composition guarantees and guaranteed staffing levels for specialist teachers.
Despite the threat of job action, Iker says there are six days until the first schools are closed and encourages Premier Christy Clark and Education Minister Peter Fassbender to empower BCPSEA to negotiate a fair deal.
Under the rotating strike schedule, the province has been divided by the BCTF into four zones. Schools in every district of the province will be closed for one day each, over four days of rotating strikes. Classes will resume province-wide on Friday.
Fassbender is expected to respond to the BCTF strike plan this afternoon.
Complete BCTF Strike Schedule
Monday, May 26
- #5 – Southeast Kootenay
- #6 – Rocky Mountain
- #28 – Quesnel
- #39 – Vancouver
- #40 – New Westminster
- #48 – Sea to Sky
- #49 – Central Coast
- #59 – Peace River South
- #62 – Sooke
- #67 – Okanagan Skaha
- #72 – Campbell River
- #74 – Gold Trail
- #75 – Mission
- #78 – Fraser-Cascade
- #85 – Vancouver Island North
- #87 – Stikine
Tuesday, May 27
- #10 – Arrow Lakes
- #19 – Revelstoke
- #20 – Kootenay-Columbia
- #23 – Central Okanagan
- #27 – Cariboo-Chilcotin
- #35 – Langley
- #38 – Richmond
- #42 – Maple Ridge
- #52 – Prince Rupert
- #54 – Bulkley Valley
- #63 – Saanich
- #68 – Nanaimo
- #70 – Alberni
- #81 – Fort Nelson
- #83 – North Okanagan-Shuswap
Wednesday, May 28
- #34 – Abbotsford
- #37 – Delta
- #43 – Coquitlam
- #47 – Powell River
- #50 – Haida Gwaii
- #51 – Boundary
- #53 – Okanagan Similkameen
- #60 – Peace River North
- #61 – Greater Victoria
- #69 – Qualicum
- #73 – Kamloops Thompson
- #84 – Vancouver Island West
- #91 – Nechako Lakes
- #92 – Nisga’a
Thursday May, 29
- #8 – Kootenay Lake
- #22 – Vernon
- #33 – Chilliwack
- #36 – Surrey
- #41 – Burnaby
- #44 – North Vancouver
- #45 – West Vancouver
- #46 – Sunshine Coast
- #57 – Prince George
- #58 – Nicola Similkameen
- #64 – Gulf Islands
- #71 – Comox
- #79 – Cowichan Valley
- #82 – Coast Mountains
