LangleyAdvance
Inside Super store
Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
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Audited circulation: 40,026 – 28 pages
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Tony the Tiger
Tony Beckingham, 12, examined the artistry of face-painter extraordinaire Madam Butterfly on Saturday. Madam Butterfly painted faces during Brookswood Village Summerfest, which marked its 15th year under drizzly, cool conditions.
Education labour dispute
Langley 5923 200th Street
604-530-5371
Bargaining fails to stop strike talk
Teachers and employers came closer on demands, as their rhetoric widened Monday. by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
SHOP ONLINE www.stampede.ca
Their offers are closer together, but B.C. teachers and the province remained far apart, each side accusing the other of wasting time and digging in its heels. A full-scale strike scheduled for Tuesday seemed inevitable in the wake of acrimony Monday, after several days of bargaining. BCTF head Jim Iker and B.C. Public Schools Employer Association negotiator Peter Cameron lobbed barbs at their opponents through the media. Iker said teachers made a major move on salary and presented their new position to the government on Friday. The new concessions included increasing the contract length from four years to five, and going down to an eight per cent raise over that time.
“It was fair, reasonable, and balanced,” Iker said. The wage demand put them within one per cent of the government’s seven per cent offer, Iker said during a press conference Monday morning. He accused the government of not engaging, and instead, of “sitting on their hands” for two days. “We only saw more stonewalling and unwillingness to consider new ideas,” Iker said. “They brought nothing to the table, nothing, to bring both sides closer together,” he said. Cameron responded with his own news conference on Monday afternoon. He said some of Iker’s claims in recent days have been “quite wrong,” and said Iker has mischaracterized the government as moving backwards on wage demands. They have only moved forward, from 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent, said Cameron. He accused teachers of being the ones slowing bargaining. “They do not have a comprehensive position before us,” Cameron said.
The BCPSEA released a collection of bargaining positions from both sides, saying the teachers are asking for a $5,000 signing bonus along with the eight per cent wage increase. The province is offering a $1,200 signing bonus if teachers reach a deal by the end of June. Cameron accused the teachers of still asking for too much when it comes to benefits, calling their benefit demands a “truckload.” Instead of asking for four times more benefits increases than other public sector workers got, the teachers are now only asking for about double, said Cameron. He took aim at a proposal by teachers for a fund to hire new teachers from a “Workload Fund,” to help support lower class sizes and class composition. Iker said the funding would be subject to third-party resolution between union and management, and that it would be a stopgap until the courts rule on whether the teachers were unlawfully stripped of the right to bargain on class size and composition.
The courts have ruled in the teachers’ favour twice, and now the province is appealing again. The government has allocated just $11 million for a wide variety of benefits. According to Cameron’s documents, that money would be for everything from prep time increases to any boosts to the drug plan, hearing aid costs, medical supplies, or dental plan, to all professional development issues. With a full-scale strike imminent, most Langley students will miss the last week or two of classes, but students will be able to sit provincial exams, and grads will get their report cards. Also an essential service is summer school, which is expected to go ahead normally. Schools across Langley will be behind picket lines starting Tuesday, barring a last minute deal between the two sides. The Langley School District and the Langley Teachers Association have separately negotiated on a number of local issues. That deal was settled some time ago.