Elevate your local knowledge

Sign up for the iNFOnews newsletter today!

Select Region

B.C. Teachers, government hit impasse during contract talks: negotiator

[byline]

B.C. Teachers, government hit impasse during contract talks: negotiator | iNFOnews.ca
Students listen as British Columbia Minister of Education Peter Fassbender speaks at the official opening of Goldstone Park Elementary School in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday April 24, 2014. Teachers began job action Wednesday after voting 89 percent in favour of giving their union - the B.C. Teachers' Federation - authority to take strike action in three stages. The BC Teachers Federation said it's being forced to take job action because of the slow pace of negotiations after its members' contract expired last June. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Original Publication Date: April 25, 2014 2:24AM
Publication Updated: January 8, 2025 11:24PM

VANCOUVER – Talks between the B.C. government and the province's unionized teachers are stalled one day after limited job action began.

Peter Cameron, chief negotiator for the employers association, says the BC Teachers' Federation isn't able to make any serious moves on the outstanding issues at the bargaining table.

He says if the stalemate continues, the province will have to respond to the teachers' Stage 1 job action with pressure of its own, but he didn't elaborate on what that would mean.

Wages, class size and composition are the major stumbling blocks between the government and the province's 41,000 teachers.

Job action began on Wednesday, with teachers refusing to supervise students outside the classroom or communicating in writing with administrators, which prompted about a dozen school districts to cancel recess.

Union president Jim Iker says the government and employer refuse to budge on a proposed 10-year contract, wages, and putting class size and composition matters back into the collective agreement.

Join the Conversation!

Want to share your thoughts, add context, or connect with others in your community?

Create a free account

One response

  1. Joe BC

    The government has the money… no new taxes need to be paid… just spend the money needed from the $2.9 Billion dollar (three year) contingency fund on students in BC! Move whatever is needed to satisfy the BC Supreme Court ruling and give teachers a COLA for three years. Drop the 10 year agreement. No one would ever sign that unless it was lucrative like Luongo’s 10 year deal. Offering 7.25% (1.2% per year) likely won’t even cover inflation over the coming six years and leaving a question mark for the last four years is ridiculous. Bargain a 3 – 5 year deal including the illegally stripped class size and composition language, offer a COLA based on inflation each year and I think you might solve the dispute. Who knows……………………….

Shelley Jordan

Related Articles