Premier Christy Clark and Education Minister George Abbott chose a Vancouver school playground to highlight the new school year, which will see the return of more than 540,000 students today.
Clark and Abbott promised to spend $ 8 million to build and upgrade school playgrounds to ensure students have more safe, happy play spaces.
B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Susan Lambert said playgrounds are welcome additions, but with teachers in a legal strike position, the government’s decision to focus on playgrounds appears “myopic.”
“Almost to the point of Nero fiddling while Rome’s burning,” said Lambert.
Students won’t be greeted by picket lines, but teachers will not be supervising playgrounds or doing many of the other jobs they normally do above teaching as a form of strike action.
Teachers are an essential service under B.C. labour law, and while they have limited rights to conduct job action, they can’t legally shut down the entire school system.
Hugh Finlayson, with the B.C. Public School Employers Association, which bargains on behalf of B.C.’s 60 public school boards, said teacher benefit demands for leaves, holidays and pensions add up to $ 2.1 billion, with wages still not on the table.
He said two-thirds of B.C. public service workers have already negotiated contracts that fall within the government’s net-zero wage structure — no wage increases during the length of the contract — but the BCTF is trying to buck the trend.
Lambert disputes the employers’ $ 2.1-billion estimate.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
About The Reporter
