The government needs to start obeying the law and stop dragging teachers through court, according to the president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation.
Jim Iker paid a visit to the picket line outside Delta Secondary in Ladner yesterday morning on the first full day of a province-wide teachers' strike.
After talking briefly to the crowd of well over 100 striking teachers and supporters, Iker addressed the throng of media eager for the latest on stalled contract negotiations with government. Iker assured that talks with the employer were about to resume following a collapse over the weekend, but was reluctant to provide much in the way of details.
He did say that class size and composition, more so than wages, is the biggest issue to be solved.
"We have a (B.C.) Supreme Court decision that says let's restore those (staffing) provisions and government, instead of restoring those provisions, has gone to more litigation asking for a stay.
"They have to stop violating the supreme law of the land and honour the decisions of the court." Earlier this year, the B.C. Court of Appeal granted the provincial government's application for the stay of a ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court that found legislation introduced in 2002 removing class size and composition from contract negotiations was unconstitutional.
Now under appeal, that ruling was a significant blow against the province, which was ordered to restore class size limits and maximums on the number of special needs students to 2002 levels, the year government axed the teachers' collective agreement.
According to the Delta Teachers' Association, the Delta district has 768 classes with four or more "ministry identified" students who have a special needs designation. The
DTA asked the Delta school board to restore the previous class size and composition limits immediately, but that has yet to occur as the board awaits the outcome of the government's appeal.
Meanwhile, the backand-forth finger pointing, as well as accusations of bad faith bargaining, between teachers and government made the full shutdown of schools inevitable, but Iker said yesterday he's hopeful a deal can still get done by June 30.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender this week said the B.C. Public School Employers' Association tabled "a significant, affordable and creative set of proposals" to help end the stalemate.
The minister also said the goal remains to get to an agreement by June 30.
It's not clear at this point if summer school will be cancelled should the strike continue into next month. Iker did not want to comment on summer school, only saying the one thing on their minds at this point is to get a deal done.
Provincial exams are going ahead.
Parents can get further updates how the job action will impact students by checking the Delta school district website at web.deltasd.bc.ca.
