Update

Hi Folks,

It has been almost two weeks since Judge Griffin’s court ruling restored the language that was stripped from our Collective Agreements in 2002.

The reaction has been quite remarkable. Even conservative media outlets are recognizing Judge Griffin’s comments about contravening the charter rights of teachers – twice – and conspiring to provoke a strike for their own political advantage. Of course the notable exception here is our own North Island Gazette and Tom Fletcher. (Mostly, I try to ignore him, but lord he’s annoying).

This link is to the language that was stripped from our Collective Agreement in 2002 and restored as of last week:

http://www.vinta-bctf.ca/?p=711688

Some of the language is a bit dated and could use a little fine-tuning. The actual numbers are quite revealing. I am in the process of trying to calculate exactly what impact these class size numbers and non-enrolling ratios would have on our district. So far, it seems that SD 85 will not be as significantly affected as many districts in the province. More on this next week.

Education minister Fassbender held a press conference earlier this week, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, the government has decided to appeal the court’s decision. He said the court had it all wrong and the liberal government would never try to intentionally provoke a strike. And, the province could never afford it. Somehow it is okay to sacrifice the education of a generation of British Columbia children on the altar of low corporate taxes.

So, let’s see, on the one hand the liberal government is saying, ‘heavens no, we would not try and intentionally provoke a teachers strike for some narrow political advantage – Nope we wouldn’t do that…..Trust us…..Judge Griffin is mistakin….’

On the other hand the liberal government is spending a bag of money to appeal the court ruling to release the cabinet documents Judge Griffin used to base much of her decision.

Hmmm, ‘trust us’ but, ‘we really don’t want you to see those documents’. Makes me think, ‘Now, I really want to see those documents’!

This an interesting link to a document that calls on Fassbender to get his facts straight. It records what he says the liberal government has done for education in B.C. and then goes on to show what the facts are. The title is, ‘Get the facts straight’. There are a number of other very interesting links with reference to the recent decision.

http://www.bctf.ca/bargainingAndContracts.aspx?id=31832

There are a number of opinions that the government’s appeal is a bit of a long shot, but it would be unwise to try and predict what a Court of Appeal ruling might be.

Judge Griffin restored the language effective the day of her decision. However, she also stayed (delayed implementation) of her decision for 30 days. That time will be up in about two weeks. A part of the government’s appeal is to continue this stay until the Court of Appeal has rendered its decision. A continuation of the stay is not automatic, but the government lawyers are arguing very strongly for it.

And this is the crux of the matter!

If the government gets a continuation of the stay then it will be as if the decision had not been rendered. And one can only imagine the government will attempt to protract those proceedings for as long as is humanly possible. The word, ‘years’ comes to mind.

If, on the other hand, the decision is allowed to stand, we will meet with the School District and review what the district’s obligations are to satisfy the numbers and ratios this year, and even more significantly, what those obligations will be as staffing is planned for the 2014-15 school year.

We will know this will play out by the end of February.

The backdrop to all of this is the bargaining table. The government continues to demand further concessions. And, they continue to say there is no class size and composition language in any Collective Agreement and they don’t want to talk about it. (Respectfully, Judge Griffin disagrees with the government)

The two groups will meet for the first time since the court decision on February 12th. Much of what happens after that will depend on whether there is recognition from government that things have changed.

Our provincial bargaining action plan was debated and adopted at the Rep. Assembly in Vancouver last weekend. There was a recognition that the ‘playing field’ had changed and the decision was made to give the provincial Executive Committee the ability to call certain votes and initiate any actions. Much will depend on what the government has to say at the table on February 12th.

I am in the process of trying to arrange visits with each staff to further discuss the court decision and to go over the provincial bargaining action plan. There will be votes in the near future and they could initiate some actions. It would be good to have these discussions.

If there is a time that works particularly well to visit your staff, please let me know.

Fred
Fred Robertson
President
Vancouver Island North Teachers’ Association
lp85@bctf.ca