Tag

The B.C. government has sent out 165,000 cheques to B.C. parents to compensate them for school days lost in the teacher strike in September, accounting for more than half of the students eligible for the $40-a-day payments. The finance ministry reports that nearly 230,000 families have registered for the payments, which cover 13 school days missed in September before a contract was reached and teachers returned to work. Those families represent 295,000 children aged 12 and under enrolled in...

B.C. teachers have voted strongly in favour of ending their strike and returning to work next week. B.C. Teachers’ Federation members voted 86 per cent in favour of a six-year agreement negotiated with the help of mediator Vince Ready this week. About three out of four of the province’s 40,000 teachers voted. “I’m happy with this deal,” said BCTF president Jim Iker. It gives the province’s teachers raises totalling 7.25 per cent over six years,...

Parents and students will know this evening whether their schools will be open next week. After studying the tentative deal reached this week between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and provincial negotiators. teachers are voting across the province today. BCTF president Jim Iker is scheduled to release the results of the vote at 9:30 tonight in a webcast from the union headquarters. The six-year agreement is the longest term ever negotiated for a union that has worked under imposed...

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation executive is recommending its members accept a six-year agreement to settle its labour dispute with the province. BCTF president Jim Iker said Tuesday the tentative agreement provides for “hundreds of new teachers” as well as raises for regulator and substitute teachers and improved extended health benefits. The agreement also includes “a mutually agreed process to address any future court decision,” with the government’s...

B.C.’s striking teachers will vote this week on a tentative settlement with the provincial government. Mediator Vince Ready announced the breakthrough early Tuesday morning, after five days of talks at a Richmond hotel. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the province’s negotiators agreed to withhold details until a final document is presented to present to BCTF members and school trustees. With a ratification vote of 40,000 union members expected to be held Thursday, the...

Teachers will remain on the picket lines in Prince George at least until Thursday, says Prince George District Teachers’ Association first vice-president Richard Giroday. That is when teachers in Prince George, and around the province, will vote on a tentative contract deal that was reached early this morning. “Everybody feels pretty positive,” Giroday said. “It’s a good feeling that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.” When teachers might be back...

VICTORIA – Now that a cease-fire has emerged from the latest round in the war for control of B.C.’s public school system, the next court battle is ready to proceed. Lawyers for the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation have filed their written submissions to the B.C. Court of Appeal. At issue is whether legislation removing union contract terms that dictated class size and teacher staff levels was a violation of members’ constitutional rights to freedom of association....

The teachers’ strike could soon be over. “A tentative settlement has been reached as of 3:50 a.m. this morning,” the BCTF announced on Twitter this morning. “Details not being released at this time.” The deal comes after a lengthy bargaining session with mediator Vince Ready. Teachers have been on strike since mid-June.

Editor: I think people are starting to get it. Teachers are not walking picket lines at great financial cost to their own families and children for an additional per cent increase in wages from the government’s offer (teachers eight per cent, government seven per cent). They are fighting for their students’ learning environment that no longer meets children’s needs. They are also fighting against a government that continues to deny and attack their fundamental rights under...

Editor: I expect elected officials to be honest, prudent, and competent individuals, none more so than our premier. Instead, Christy Clark is showing a callous indifference to the BCPSEA/BCTF labour dispute and to the overall health of our province. Said plainly, Christy doesn’t care. 1) Christy doesn’t care about the law. Two court rulings have upheld the BCTF’s legal right to collective bargaining about class size/composition. Instead of owning her mistakes and working to fix the...