B.C. teachers may be allowed to launch a full-scale strike if the Labour Relations Board approves their application for such job action as the government prepares legislation to impose a contract.
A board hearing Monday night will also consider whether a mediator should step into the labour dispute that began last September.
Education Minister George Abbott has said after nearly a year of negotiations, the teachers' union and the province's bargaining agent are too far apart for a mediator to settle the ongoing dispute.
Teachers have so far staged limited job action such as not filling out report cards, meeting with administrators or supervising children in playgrounds.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, they will vote on whether to escalate their action and launch a full-scale walkout.
The Labour Relations Board must approve their next steps because education is designated an essential service.
Susan Lambert, head of the BC Teachers' Federation, said the union is appealing to parents to contact Abbott and let him know that a negotiated end to the contract is what teachers want.
"Please help us avoid what would be the worst-case scenario (and) inflame an already problematic relationship, and that is a legislated end to this round of collective bargaining," she said.
"The last thing we want to do is go out on strike. What we're trying to do is exhaust every possibility ahead of time. That includes mediation."
Abbott has said while teachers have a democratic right to escalate job action, it would only increase the harm to students and impact their parents.
Teachers want a 15-per-cent wage hike during the government's net-zero mandate for public-sector employees.
"The union's demands, which would add $2 billion in costs for B.C. taxpayers, are not acceptable given the current financial reality," Abbott said.
The government maintains that three quarters of public-sector unions have settled their contracts under the current policy.
Melanie Joy, chairwoman of the BC Public School Employers Association, the government's bargaining agent, said teachers currently have 60 different benefits plans but a provincial one would save money.
Lambert said that would mean taking away benefits from teachers in some districts.
"It would be like taking hearing aids away from one group of membership in order to give eyeglasses to another," Lambert said.
But Joy said that if the union's priority is to get more money for its members, amalgamating the plans for all members would cut overall costs.
Before the Labour Relations Board hearing on Monday night, teachers planned after-school rallies in Victoria, in front of the legislature building, and at a Surrey arena.
B.C. teachers launched an illegal strike in 2005, resulting in a $500,000 fine for their union after the government had already legislated a contract.
