02) B.C. TEACHERS REFUSE "NET ZERO"

By Kimball Cariou

     The school year has started with BC Teachers' Federation members engaged in job actions, including refusal to do certain types of administrative work and supervision. But classes are underway, despite dire warnings of chaos by anti-teacher forces.

     Premier Christy Clark has directed the BC Public School Employers Association to refuse any net increases in the current round of bargaining, This "net zero" strategy means that any improvement must be balanced by giving up existing conditions in other areas of the collective agreement.

     Back in 2002, when Clark was education minister during Gordon Campbell's first term in office, the Liberals stripped from the collective agreement many provisions that would presumably have been on the table to trade under the "net zero" directive.

     Many of these working conditions clauses were achieved as a trade off in bargaining during the 1990s, for lower class sizes, limits on class composition, and staffing formulas for learning specialists like librarians and special education teachers. This put B.C. teachers further behind in salaries, and left no contractual provisions that could be traded.

     A zero increase would widen the huge gap between the salaries of teachers in the prairies and Ontario. An Alberta teacher, for example, already makes about $20,000 a year more than a teacher with equivalent training and experience in B.C. - and has a lower cost of living.

     As BCTF President Susan Lambert points out, "Salaries for B.C. teachers rank eighth in Canada, while the cost of living is among the highest in the country. Teaching requires five years of university training and new teachers on average spend three to five years working as teachers on call at an average annual salary of less than $15,000."

     The current "Phase 1" job action by the teachers is expected to continue during efforts to advance the collective bargaining process. But the inside word is that BCPSEA is blocking attempts to begin negotiations on the substantial issues in this dispute.

     Recent statements by the Premier and Finance Minister Kevin Falcon indicate that the defeat of the Harmonized Sales Tax by B.C. voters will be used as a club to impose further "belt-tightening" on education and health care, and new tax hikes on working people. It appears that teachers will be the first targets of the new regime. In fact, given her history, Premier Clark may well be hoping to use the teachers as a political punching bag to bolster her sagging support in public opinion polls.

     The result could be another sharp confrontation between the government and the teachers, who fought the Liberals to a standstill with their courageous two-week strike back in 2005. The BCTF had strong support from other unions during that dispute; even greater solidarity will be needed this time around.

(The above article is from the September 16-31, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)