B.C. teachers’ strike could last for weeks, expert warns

British Columbia, British Columbia families hoping for a quick end to the teachers strike will not be pleased to hear of a new expert warning that the labour disruption could drag on for weeks.
The province’s public school teachers were on the picket lines Tuesday, on what should have been the first day of classes for approximately 500,000 students.
Teacher Troy Hardwick told CTV Vancouver that he and his colleagues weren’t happy to be outside their classrooms.
“Nobody wants to be out here. None of us want to be out here,” Hardwick said.
Supporters gathered at a demonstration at the B.C. legislature in Victoria on Tuesday, to show their solidarity with the striking educators.
Also Tuesday, the province and the teachers’ union talked briefly over the phone, but there are no immediate plans for any formal talks. Hopes for an agreement came to an end over the weekend, after days of mediated talks broke down without any resolution.
B.C.’s Education Minister Peter Fassbender blamed the teachers union, and its demands, for the strike.
“The BCTF basically said ‘Give us what we want and that will be the solution,’” he said. “That’s unrealistic and unaffordable.”
The government said it won’t give in to the “unrealistic” demands of the union, which include new wage demands and a $5,000 signing bonus. It said it also wouldn’t negotiate the union’s main issue of class sizes and composition until the two sides are much closer on the issue of cash.
But B.C. Teachers’ Federation President Jim Iker said the government has to show that it is serious about negotiating.
“Mr. Fassbender is out there saying that we have to make more concessions. Well, what about government? Do we need some faith from government that they actually want to get a deal?” he said.
Prof. E. Wayne Ross from the U.B.C. Institute for Critical Education Studies warned that the teachers’ strike could last up to a month.
Ross said neither side is ready to turn to binding arbitration, and it appears that the government strategy is to break the union.
“They know that they can wait the teachers out, and put individual teachers and teachers’ families in a financial bind,” Ross said.
Meanwhile a group of school children braved the rain Tuesday to launch their own protest outside MLA Suzanne Anton’s office.
“Today I’m standing outside the office waiting for school to start,” student Joseph Graff said.