B.C. premier wants resolution to teachers’ dispute within 48 hours of meeting

VANCOUVER – B.C.’s premier is hoping a Labour Relations Board meeting will jumpstart a resolution to the teachers’ dispute within 48 hours.

Christy Clark says the government’s negotiators and the teachers’ union will meet with the LRB on Thursday over lockout provisions that include a 10 per cent pay cut for teachers.

She says the two sides must bargain hard to come to a settlement because students are put in the middle of the fracas yet again as thousands of teachers stage rotating strikes this week.

Clark says a broken bargaining system has meant several governments have had to legislate teachers back to work over the last 30 years, with only one exception that didn’t involve a strike.

In 2006, then-finance minister Carole Taylor offered signing bonuses to several public-sector unions, including the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, which agreed to a five-year deal.

Each teacher received a $3,700 signing bonus offered by the government to ensure labour peace in the province during the 2010 Olympics.