VICTORIA — B.C.'s teachers will launch rotating strikes next week, using picket lines to try to pressure the government to meet their contract demands while promising parents they will only be inconvenienced for, at most, a day.

It's a strategic move by the B.C. Teachers' Federation, which hasn't tried rotating strikes since the 1990s, that nonetheless risks the wrath of parents who must scramble to find alternate child care arrangements.

Experts say both sides are gambling that a limited classroom disruption will win them the "hearts and minds" of the public.

If the public mood is sympathetic, teachers are hopeful the pressure will result in the government caving to BCTF demands. However, if the strikes backfire, it could give the government ammunition for a heavy-handed bargaining position or back-to-work legislation.

Teachers want to give the appearance of provincewide labour unrest while minimizing the actual impact to schools by making sure each district is only behind picket lines for one day of four planned days of strikes, said Jim Iker, BCTF president.

"We believe we're putting maximum pressure overall, but in terms of students, we'll be one day of disruption," he said.

"We've been bargaining for 16 months, so we want a deal by the end of June. It's May now; we're hoping there's going to be some impact to kickstart government to come to the table in good faith."

B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender expressed disappointment at the move, but labour experts say it could ultimately be a positive step because it ratchets up the tension between both sides and could be the catalyst necessary to force a deal in the protracted dispute.

"It's the finest of lines," said Ken Thornicroft, a labour lawyer and professor at the University of Victoria. "They need to put some pressure on the employer, and in order to do that they've got to rile up the public a little bit. But you don't want to rile up the public so much that the balance tips the other way and now the public is saying, 'These bloody teachers, if the government wants to legislative them back, go ahead.'

"Both sides are in the battle for the hearts and minds of the public."

Schools across the province will each be closed for one day next week as part of rotating strikes announced Tuesday by the BCTF. Any extracurricular activities, field trips, sporting events or arts festivals scheduled on the strike day will be cancelled. Friday is expected to be a normal school day without interruption.

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A protracted dispute between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the provincial government has seen several moves and countermoves put forward from each side for consideration.

This is how it has played out.

March 6, 2014: B.C. Teachers’ Federation members voted 89 per cent in favour of a strike, as talks at the bargaining table stalled. The teachers are seeking a three-year agreement that includes a three-per-cent wage increase plus a cost-of-living increase in each of the three years, beginning July 1, 2013. The cost of living is expected to increase between one and two per cent in each of the next few years, making the total ask over three years about 13 per cent. The employer’s wage proposal is for a 10-year contract, with a total of 6.5 per cent spread out until May 1, 2019, with indexing after that.

April 23, 2014: Public school teachers across the province begin “stage one” of job action. The BCTF states that classrooms won’t be affected but teachers will not be supervising students outside the classroom, such as during recess, and they will not perform administrative duties or attend meetings. They will not provide reports to administrators or read reports from administrators, and they will not be at schools more than one hour before or after school, except for arranged voluntary duties such as coaching sports teams. Teachers will still prepare report cards and meet with parents.

May 1, 2014: One week after the union began “stage one” strike action, the government responded by threatening to force the teachers’ federation to pay the full cost of its benefits during job action, which could cost approximately $5 million a month.

May 15, 2014: The B.C. government backs away from its demand for a 10-year deal with public school teachers. Education Minister Peter Fassbender announced plans to offer teachers a “time-limited signing bonus” with the hope of reaching a six-year settlement before the end of the school year. “We think it’s critical for students, their parents, teachers, trustees, everyone to know that we can look forward to labour peace come September,” he said. The union responds that a deal is “closer” because it has moved from a three-year contract to a four-year deal.

May 16, 2014: The B.C. government threatens to cut teachers’ wages by five per cent if a new contract agreement isn’t reached by the end of the school year. This, the rationale goes, is because those teachers are not performing all the duties for which they are paid. Peter Cameron, chief negotiator of the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, the organization representing the provincial government, also said that teachers will receive a $1,200 signing bonus if both sides reach an agreement by the end of June. The teachers later respond that the government isn’t clear about how a five-per-cent cut would be implemented, but that it doesn’t believe the government could do that.

May 20, 2014: It’s announced that B.C. teachers will begin rotating strikes next week, shutting down each school district in the province for one day. B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker said the second phase of job action comes after a lack of progress bargaining with the provincial government on wages, class size and composition. The strikes will begin Monday, May 26 in Vancouver and 15 other school districts, said Iker.

With research by PNG news librarian Carolyn Soltau and files from Canadian Press and Postmedia News

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Teachers say strike action could continue beyond next week as well.

"Depending on the progress, we will continue rotating strikes if necessary," said Iker. "But I'm hoping government will come to the table. Government says they want a deal, so let's make it happen."

A full-scale strike, in which all B.C. schools are behind picket lines at once, would require another vote of the BCTF membership and 72 hours' notice. Neither step has occurred.

Though the government could technically introduce back-to-work legislation, the rotating strikes already have the approval of the Labour Relations Board and it's an extremely unlikely response, said Thornicroft.

Both sides are struggling for leverage during a time when many students are preparing for the end of the school year in June, including final exams and graduation.

The BCTF has been strategic in striking now, said Wayne Ross, professor of education at the University of B.C.

"For secondary schools, the exams don't kick in until the second week of June, so it seems to me the BCTF is taking that (timing) into account," he said.

Ross said rotating strikes are a more moderate response than he'd expected, given the government appears to be following the same bargaining tactics it used in 2011, which were described as an attempt to provoke a strike by the B.C. Supreme Court in a later ruling. The court ruled earlier this year that the government had bargained in bad faith in 2011 during a contract dispute with teachers, and that it was preoccupied with trying to provoke the BCTF into a full-scale strike to drum up public support for back-to-work legislation. Ultimately, the two sides reached a deal without a full strike in 2012. The court also struck down government legislation prohibiting teachers from bargaining class size and composition.

"To me the rotating strikes and spreading them across the districts is a fairly moderate response to what really is a provocative stance that's come from the government," said Ross.

"The government tried to get political advantage in 2011 by provoking a strike so they could impose a contract. And this looks like, to me, a redux."

Kurt Heinrich, a spokesman for the Vancouver school board, said picket lines on Monday may impact the board's continuing education program, the adult education programs and space rentals.

"The fact that Vancouver schools will be behind picket lines represents a loss of educational opportunities for our students," he said. "Any loss of educational opportunities is difficult to make up."

Ken Hoff, a spokesman for the Langley School District, said he didn't think a one-day strike would be very disruptive for students but added that working parents will be left scrambling to find someone to look after their children. He said it's unlikely that Langley students, who will be off on Tuesday, will miss exams or face any other problems.

The major issues in the dispute between teachers and the province remain salaries, class size and composition.

Teachers have asked for a 13.75-per cent wage increase over four years, which includes a cost of living increase. That's 21 per cent over four years total compensation, the government has argued, and is out of line with what other public sector unions have settled on in recent months — around 5.5 per cent over five years.

"We think the BCTF, on behalf of the B.C. taxpayers, has to be realistic," said Fassbender.

The BCTF has said it wants to negotiate class size and composition for special needs students into its contract, and points to its victory against government in the B.C. Supreme Court on the right to do so.

But the government said the teacher's formula on class size and composition would be too expensive, and it doesn't see evidence the cost would improve learning outcomes.

Teachers have dismissed the government's latest proposal, including the bonus and threat of wage cuts if the deal isn't signed, said Iker.

"It's not a fair or reasonable offer," said Iker. "They've not even come close to offering teachers what other workers in B.C. have achieved."

The bonus should be rolled into teacher salaries, and the "threat" of salary cuts will have to go to the Labour Relations Board, he said.

BCTF spokesman Rich Overgaard said he has no idea what the five-per-cent rollback would mean to a teacher’s salary because the government hasn’t said how it would try to implement it.

He said the average teacher’s salary is about $72,000 a year. Although Overgaard wouldn’t speculate on how it would affect salaries, a five-per-cent rollback on $72,000 would mean a $3,600 salary reduction.

“It’s entirely speculative,” he added. “More importantly, we don’t think the government can actually pull it off.”

The last time the government tried to roll back teachers' wages, by 15 per cent during a contract dispute in 2011, it was twice rejected by the Labour Relations Board.

Though B.C.'s labour code will allow the government to withhold pay for teachers who fully walk off the job, there's nothing that outlines how it can cut salaries by an arbitrarily determined percentage based on partial work, said Thornicroft.

"I guess that's where I have some trouble with it," he said. "It's kind of a unilateral determination on what work is being done, and then they act on that."

Fassbender denied the wage cutback was a threat.

"There were no threats here. The reality is that in bargaining there are commensurate pressures that either party puts on in order to try and move toward a negotiated settlement," he said.

Meanwhile, Veronica Light, coordinator of Out of School Care at Strathcona Community Centre, which provides before- and after-school care for 160 children, said the strike could cost them a lot of money because it would be an additional drain on their limited resources.

Light said they provide care to children from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and again after school from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., but that the strike means they'd have to provide care during the day for parents who can't take their kids home.

"I don't have staff from 9 to 3," she explained. "If we have to cover more hours than usual, then we'll have to pay the staff to do that. And normal fees don't cover eight hours.

"It will cost us a lot of money to make sure the kids are safe."

rshaw@vancouversun.com

tcrawford@vancouversun.com

bmorton@vancouversun.com

See the affected school districts here.

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B.C. teachers' job action in Storify:



