As the bargaining chair at the time for the PGDTA I remember clearly teachers in SD 57 going on strike in the last week of January 1989 for, among other items, class size and composition.
Local bargaining between local teachers and the local School Board, while a bit tense at times, resulted in collective agreements that were respected by both parties and included class size numbers and language that assisted both sides to include all students in classrooms.
That bargaining system worked and was starting to mature as the bulk of issues were resolved so only minor adjustments were necessary in subsequent agreements.
Notwithstanding the BC Liberal's disdain for public school teachers and that government's illegal actions, according to the BC Supreme Court, in stripping class size language from collective agreements and Premier Clark's poor math with reference to provincial bargaining ("... over the last 30 years..." May 28, Citizen, page 3), teachers were forced, by the NDP government of the day some 20 years ago, into a provincial bargaining structure that has not been that productive.
If Ms. Clark and her government really want to get away from the broken provincial bargaining model then it should not be hard for her to reverse, in my opinion, the destructive legislation that was created by the NDP and return to local bargaining. As I did in '89 I fully support teachers in their fight for better (the same) working conditions again.
Dick Gilbert
