The B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) filed strike notice yesterday to take effect on Tuesday - but they won't immediately take to the picket lines.
Instead, they'll limit job action to refusing to perform administrative tasks such as filling out forms, collecting data, meeting with principals or other administrators, supervising on playgrounds, or writing report cards.
"Teachers' attention will be totally focused on the students in their classrooms, and not on the many bureaucratic and administrative tasks that take away from the joy of teaching and learning," Lambert said.
Teachers will be in close communication with parents if the need arises, Lambert added.
Negotiations between the BCTF and the provincial government's bargaining agent, B.C. Public School Employers' Association (BCPSEA) for a new contract have effectively been at a standstill for months now.
Teachers are demanding salary increases, saying they've fallen behind colleagues in other provinces.
But the provincial government has given BCPSEA a net zero mandate, so that there be no overall increase in the cost of the contract although how that money is allocated can be negotiated. Employees in the rest of the public sector are also subject to the mandate.
Teachers also want the provincial government to move more quickly on a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found that taking away the right to negotiate class size and composition was a violation of their constitutional rights. However, the April ruling also gave the government a year to respond.
Education minister George Abbot has kept his distance from the negotiations, although he has said that if teachers launch a full-blown strike they'll be legislated back to work.
Lambert called on Abbott and Premier Christy Clark to send their negotiators back to the bargaining table with a new mandate.
"If the Premier is serious about her 'Families First' agenda, she cannot say there is no money for public education," Lambert said. "It's the single most important service to the health and well-being of the province's children."
