By the end of next week the longest teacher job action in British Columbia History will have gone on for five months with no sign that a compromise will be reached to create a valid collective agreement. Depending on your opinion you might blame the teachers or their employers or both for this lengthy strike. Fact is teachers are still teaching and have been for not only the entire length of the strike but for the past nine-and-a-half years despite working under an contract stripped illegally by the Liberal government in 2002. The government has indicated they will table "corrective legislation" when they next sit in February but the Education Minister has already admitted that it won't address all the issues found illegal by the Supreme Court in 2011. Couple this deliberate defiance of the Supreme Court with a large collection of further contract strips on the bargaining table is it any wonder why there has been such a long strike? Why would teachers who have been working with an illegally stripped contract for a decade be interested in further strips while their employer continues to ignore a Court order? Don't be fooled into thinking this strike is just about money or the zero mandate, it is also about a government that continues to act as if they answer to no one including the Courts. We expect further abusive legislation and taxpayers can expect many millions of their dollars will go into lawyers pockets instead of classrooms as the Premier attempts to even a personal score with the BCTF due to an embarrassment she suffered while education minister.
Matt Pearce
President
Prince George District Teachers' Association
