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Teachers chose to go on strike and only teachers can end the job action, Premier Christy Clark said Wednesday in her first recent public comments about the strike.

Clark was pressed by reporters on how long her government would allow the strike to continue, but she insisted a deal must come through negotiation, not legislation.

“We need to get teachers to suspend their strike while we get back in the classroom and while we bargain,” Clark said. “If we really want to put students first ... we will all make sure that they are in school tomorrow.”

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker responded that teachers will not suspend their strike.

“Our members are standing strong and they are resolved,” he said Wednesday at a news conference. “We’re not suspending any strike right now ... We need government to enter into full-scale mediation.”

In the past, when teachers have been on strike, the government has legislated them back to work before students lost too much of their year. During this strike, schools have already been closed for 15 days, although those days are split over two school years.

B.C.’s 40,000 teachers initiated rotating strikes last spring, closing schools one day a week for three weeks, after which they went on a full-scale strike and closed schools for the last two weeks of June. During the job action, the employer instituted a partial lockout and a 10-per-cent pay cut.

From 1987 to 1994, when local bargaining meant each school district concluded their own deal, there were 48 strikes and three lockouts in various districts.

Since provincial bargaining came into effect in 1994, there have been three strikes disrupting 14 days of school and three legislated contracts, one legislated “cooling off period” and two negotiated deals.

In 2002, when the government stripped class size, class composition and specialist teacher ratios from the collective agreement, teachers walked off the job for one day. In 2005, the Liberal government legislated three years of zero wage increases and teachers walked off the job for 10 school days (from Oct. 7 to 21). The BCTF was found in contempt of court for defying a Labour Relations Board order to return to work. Mediator Vince Ready was called in and teachers accepted his recommendations and returned to work on Monday, Oct. 24.

In 2012, there was a three-day strike after several months of low-scale job action. The government legislated a cooling-off period, then BCTF and BCPSEA negotiated a retroactive deal covering 2011 to June 2013.

The Labour Relations Board said in 2011 that students could lose up to two weeks of a school year without serious damage to their education, but the government says it will not take that route this time. Clark said she wants a deal made at the negotiating table rather than an LRB-enforced return to work or a legislated deal.

“That is where this impasse must be resolved, and it must be resolved between negotiators,” Clark said. “It needs to be resolved by two sides who find a reasonable, thoughtful solution, because ultimately, what we all want is to make sure our kids get back to the classroom to get the education that their parents have paid for, that they’re going to need to be able to compete in the world, and most of all, an education that they need to have.

“There’s no magic wand. There’s no one who is going to step in and say they’ve come up with a simple, easy way that’s going to magically solve this.”

Clark said teacher demands for benefits like unlimited massage, an extra day off for high school teachers and the $5,000 signing bonus are too high. Iker said the signing bonus is negotiable and that Clark’s unlimited-massage and extra-day-off claims are wrong. There is a proposal on the table for additional preparation time, but that applies mostly to elementary teachers, Iker said.

Veteran mediator Vince Ready declared an impasse Saturday after exploratory talks with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association, stating the sides are still “a long, long ways apart” on class composition, benefits and wages.

Iker said the government has not added anything to their offer, while the teachers have significantly reduced their demands.

“We could have made a deal this past weekend if government was willing to move,” he said.

The BCTF was asking for $225 million a year to address class size and composition issues, which would be primarily used to hire additional teachers. Iker said they have reduced this proposal to $175 million in the first year and $225 million in the second year.

The BCTF was also asking for $225 million more over five years to deal retroactively with grievances planned after winning two B.C. Supreme Court rulings on class size and composition bargaining rights. Iker said that ask has been reduced to $100 million over five years.

The government’s proposal, “E80,” contains its corresponding offer on class size, class composition and specialist teachers. It offers to continue the $75-million Learning Improvement Fund, to start a fact-finding committee on specialist teachers and to keep class size limits in the School Act. The proposal would add the Learning Improvement Fund to the collective agreement and would allow teachers to bargain on any changes to class size if they are found to be detrimental to teacher workload.

“Their proposal, E80, would supersede and replace all previous class size, class composition and specialist teacher provisions. They want to nullify what teachers just won back in court and in any future court case,” Iker said. “It’s an unreasonable stand to take and it’s preventing both sides from moving forward. This is the single biggest obstacle to getting a deal which would see our schools open. The government needs to drop E80 and negotiate fairly with teachers so we can end this strike.”

On wages, the government is offering seven per cent over six years and the BCTF is asking for eight per cent over five years.

Clark said the employer is keen to negotiate class composition, but that wages and benefits have to be in the “affordability zone” first.

“As long as the teachers’ federation refuses to get into the affordability zone, and by that I mean a zone that is similar to what the other 150,000 public servants who serve British Columbians every day have settled for, we cannot put all of our attention into the one issue that is most vital for the future of education in British Columbia and that is addressing the issues with respect to class composition,” Clark said.

“We will deal with the results of the court case when it comes down,” she said. “We are certainly not going to set aside those results, nor could we. But in the meantime, I don’t want to wait for a court result to deal with classroom composition.”

Sun Education Reporter

tsherlock@vancouversun.com

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