The city's public schools will be behind picket lines today as the teachers' province-wide campaign of rotating one-day strikes reaches Prince George.
It was a decision teachers did not take lightly, Prince George District Teachers Association president Tina Cousins said. "That's not our nature but we feel that the time has come that we have to stand up to the government and for public education."
The day will culminate in a march, starting at 3:30 p.m., from the Parkwood shopping centre to Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond's office on Fifth Avenue.
Bond is in Victoria today for the last day of the legislative session and will not be meeting with the group.
The rotating strikes are part of a two-stage plan teachers approved in March that started with low-level job action that included refusing to supervise students outside of regular instructional time and attending any meetings with management staff or correspond with them.
The rotating strikes began Monday and were to continue through to to end of today. By the end of that time, all school districts in B.C. will have seen their schools shut down for a day.
All schools will be open on Friday.
Also on Wednesday, the BCTF announced a second week of rotating strikes. Prince George and the surrounding area will be targeted next Tuesday, June 3.
The full strike schedule from the BCTF:
"We've been at the bargaining table for 16 months, the provincial government and the B.C. Public School Employers Association still refuse to offer any improvements to class size, class composition and other important conditions for students," Cousins said during a presentation to school board trustees on Tuesday night.
Cousins also claimed per-student funding in B.C. is $1,000 less than the national average. However, the provincial government has noted in part that the figure for B.C. is watered down because it also delivers full-day kindergarten while other provinces do not.
"The B.C. government has to start reinvesting in our kids and our future," Cousins said.
Other unions, including Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Professional Employees Association, have pledged to honour the picket lines.
The B.C. Teachers Federation is demanding a 13.7 per cent wage hike over four years but the government is offering a 7.3 per cent increase over a six-year contract.
In an interview Wednesday, Education Minister Peter Fassbender said the provincial government "really wants a negotiated settlement and we believe that teachers deserve a raise, but not one that is out of step with the rest of the public service that we've been able to negotiate settlements with."
In response to the first stage of job action, the provincial government has countered with a partial lockout that prohibits teachers from working more than 45 minutes before or after instructional time, are docked 10 per cent of their pay for work not completed and are also restricted from supervising lunch.
As part of the first stage of job action, teacher refused to begin work any sooner than one hour before school begins and to leave no later than one hour after school had ended each day.
The BCTF and the provincial government's bargaining arm for public schools, the B.C. School Employers Association, will be before the Labor Relations Board today to challenge that 10-per-cent cut.
Fassbender said the original intention was to impose a five per cent cut but it was raised to 10 per cent when teachers started the rotating strikes.
There will also be full lockouts for secondary schoolteachers June 25 and 26, with elementary schoolteachers joining their secondary school colleagues June 27.
