Prince George teachers will decide today whether they will walk off the job and take up picket lines for the first time since 2005.
If that strike happens, it won't likely take effect until Monday, and only if a majority of the province 41,000 teachers support escalating their current job action.
The B.C. Labour Relations Board ruled Tuesday teachers are legally allowed to withhold their services for three days in the first week of a strike, and then will granted the right to one day in each subsequent week. Striking teachers are bound by restrictions because they provide an essential service. Teachers at the LRB hearing had asked for the right to walk off the job for four days each week in a two-week period.
Prince George District Teachers' Association president Matt Pearce said the B.C. Teachers Federation would be required to give 72 hours strike notice to the B.C. Public School Employers' Association.
The provincial government is introducing legislation this afternoon that it intends to use to force a settlement in the six-month old labour dispute. It's expected the legislation will require several days before it is passed by the Liberal government. The bill is expected to follow the net-zero mandate and not include any pay raises for teachers, who have been asking for a 15 per cent wage increases over three years.
Parents of students from Kelly Road secondary school who have planned a spring break trip to Italy have expressed their concerns the trip might be cancelled in the event of a strike. Each student has paid $4,000 for the teacher-escorted trip and parents were worried they would lose that money if the trip gets cancelled.
But Pearce reassured there would not be any disruption in travel plans as a result of the strike. If it takes place while teachers are in a strike situation, he said the only consequence for the teachers involved would be they would lose their strike pay for not fulfilling their union duty to picket. But he said striking teachers would be expected to forego involvement in provincial high school sports championships or any other local extracurricular school activities.
"I have been in contact with a half-dozen teachers who are going on trips and it's not our intention to make those trips not happen," said Pearce. "If we go into job action, before the trip, they will still go on the trip because those tickets are paid for and are non-refundable. Hopefully that's what parents are hearing from students."
School District 57 students have a one-week spring break, March 17-25. Pearce said if schools do close in a strike, he's not sure if lost teaching time will be made up once the dispute is labour settled.
"It's a fool's game to guess what might happen if there are days lost between now and then," said Pearce. "Typically, we're not paid for struck work and we don't make it up. We didn't make up the [two struck weeks] in 2005. But agreements can be reached between the parties on that."
Pearce said the teachers' day of action Monday at all city schools went as well as could be expected. Although there were no mass after-school demonstrations like there were in Vancouver and Victoria, the meetings during the day informed teachers of their options to help them decide a course of action that will be reflected in Wednesday's vote.
"I think it went really well across our schools," said Pearce. "We had super-high participation in most schools, 100 per cent of staff, and it was a really good day of unity to communicate what the issues are. For us, communication has been a key thing throughout this six months."
