B.C. teachers’ collective agreement to expire at end of June

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s the final stretch of the school year, and it is also the final few days of the current deal between teachers and the province as both sides talk about stumbling blocks in negotiations.

“I think it’s premature to discuss job action,” says Renzo Del Negro, lead negotiator for the BC Public School Employers’ Association, who describes bargaining as progressing, albeit slowly.

“The parties are simply having their discussions at this stage and there’s no requirement for job action even after the agreement expires. As long as the parties are willing to find a resolution, they will. I would say, at this point, there is plenty of opportunity to get an agreement, even if we have to go into the fall to reach it.”

Glen Hansman with the British Columbia Teachers Federation has been critical of the latest offer from the province, saying it erases all language around classroom composition restored by the B.C. Supreme Court in 2016, and would increase class size in some school districts.

“None of this will be better for students, for teachers, or for public education. Having larger classes doesn’t ‘modernize’ education, contrary to public statements from the B.C. NDP government and employer spokespeople about their proposals,” Hansman tweeted last week. “Having fewer teachers in most school districts to support the integration of students with special needs does not make the system more equitable.”

Del Negro claims employers are having trouble with the language the court restored to the collective agreement, saying it is decades out of date.

“That language is approximately 30 years old,” he tells NEWS 1130. “Our member boards have indicated to us that they are struggling to meet the educational requirements in the 2019 context with language that dates back that far. The language itself predates an inclusive educational environment, which is the context with which we educate children today.”
He argues that context was at the cusp of when schools were starting to include students with special needs.

“Environments today are more diverse, more inclusive, and the language needs to be modernized to accept those students and not treat them as workload problems that need to be either excluded or where other students need to be excluded for them to be be in those classes.”

Del Negro says the BCPSEA also has issues with the union’s proposals around workload.

“Our preliminary costing of the BCTF’s workload demands are in the neighbourhood of around a billion dollars,” he says. “We don’t believe that’s reasonable. Governments have already set their budgets for the next three years and that’s clearly outside what’s available to us.”

Hansman is on the record as saying the BCTF has seen proposals that would take the province’s classrooms backwards and make massive cuts to teaching supports for many students.

The current agreement between the BC Teachers Federation and the BC Public School Employers’ Association ends June 30.