B.C. teachers and their employer have returned to the bargaining table for their first face-to-face talks since June, but it will be at least next week before any agreement is reached.
Friday’s meetings concluded shortly after 5 p.m., but B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker told CTV News that negotiations would continue next week.
Both Iker and B.C. Public School Employers Association negotiator Peter Cameron declined to offer further comment on Friday’s meetings.
Both sides have maintained they are hopeful these latest talks will go well. Earlier this week, the BCTF indicated that the two sides are close on salary demands, but still have a long way to go on benefits and class composition.
During Friday’s negotiations, someone placed a box of rotten apples outside the building on West Broadway where the two sides were meeting. Accompanying the box were photos of Premier Christy Clark and Minister of Education Peter Fassbender and a sign that read “Teachers hungry? Have an apple …”
In Saanich, there was a less subtle demonstration aimed at getting the sides to reach a deal. Teachers rallied at an overpass asking drivers to “honk for public education.”
Mark Skanks, president of the Saanich Teachers Association, told CTV News he was “relieved” that BCPSEA and BCTF are meeting again and “optimistic” that talks would continue.
“We all want to be back at our jobs,” he said. “We just want a deal and to get on with it.”
John Fryer, an adjunct professor in the school of public administration at the University of Victoria, also said he hoped a deal would get done, but seemed skeptical that it would actually happen.
“I sure hope they reach a settlement,” Fryer said. “But then I say, how on Earth are they going to be able to pull that off after so much acrimony and so much dispute?”
With the new school year scheduled to begin in just three weeks, the pressure to reach an agreement is mounting.
The province has already announced that if school does not begin on Sept. 2, it will pay parents $40 a day for each student under the age of 13, with the payouts to continue for the duration of the walkout.
Fryer called the province’s plan “irresponsible,” saying it shows the government cares more about “settling a score” with the teachers’ union than providing an essential service.
“This is about public education,” he said. “Public education is a Canadian value, and it’s about preparing a new generation for the future. It’s not about childcare. That’s a separate subject, and I don’t think the two should be mixed up.”
Rather than planning for the strike to continue, the government should be doing one of three things to ensure that school starts on time, Fryer said. One option would be to settle the dispute, another would be to go to mediation, and the third would be to pass legislation that says school must begin on Sept. 2, he said.
With files from the Canadian Press and CTV Vancouver’s Sheila Scott.
