Parents of school-aged children are being urged to make arrangements for child care to prepare for an imminent teachers' strike.
Child day care services will be overwhelmed and there will not be enough spaces to accommodate all students who would need daytime supervision if teachers decide to walk off the job, predicts Don Sabo, chair of the District Parent Advisory Council.
"There is a high probability that the teachers will be going on strike," said Sabo. "So parents should plan ahead and start looking into child care. Don't wait until the last minute. There are going to be way less child care spaces available than the demand."
Prince George teachers will vote today on whether they support an escalation of their job action.
They were told last Thursday the government intends to bring about a legislated end to the job action, now heading into its seventh month.
"It's kind of disappointing," said Sabo. "We would have thought adults would have been able to come to the table and be able to come up with an agreement that's acceptable and satisfactory to both sides, but that's not the case.
"There is such a thing as a wildcat strike, and with that, a strike could take place [Wednesday]. Teachers are backed into a corner and anything goes. Being legislated back to work is what they're faced with and I wouldn't be surprised if they did walk off for a few days or week or whatever."
The Liberals tabled legislation Tuesday morning expected to enact a two-year settlement with no raises for teachers and no clawbacks from the contract that expired June 30, 2011. Teachers across the province were waiting Tuesday for a decision by the B.C. Labour Relations Board on how long they can legally withdraw their services.
If schools are closed, Sabo said employers need to try to accommodate parents who might have to miss work to care for their children. That could involve granting employees flexible hours or allowing them to work out of their homes using phone or Internet connections.
Sabo represents all parent advisory councils in School District 57 and because of that said the DPAC remains neutral on whether it supports teacher in their job action or the government. But as a parent himself, Sabo sympathizes with what teachers have gone through in their dealings with the B.C. Public School Employers' Association since the last time they went on strike in October 2005.
"According to the teachers, this was the plan all long to drag out negotiations and then legislate," said Sabo. "They've been down this road before so I hope this isn't a cyclical pattern here. It's my personal observation that when the [government stripped teachers'] right to bargain work conditions with class size and composition, that was determined unconstitutional and illegal, yet it was never inserted back into the collective bargaining process. The courts are saying it's illegal, but they've done nothing about it."
