LangleyAdvance Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
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Education labour dispute
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Back to school… for picketers Pickets lines resumed Monday as the start of the new school year fast approaches.
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by Heather Colpitts hcolpitts@langleyadvance.com
Langley is one of three sites in the province with pickets this week as the labour dispute between B.C. teachers and the provincial government continues. Starting Aug. 25, pickets were up in Langley, Kamloops and Vancouver. Rob Ashby has taught with the Langley School District for 25 years and was outside his workplace, the Langley Education Centre, on Monday. “I’m getting a lot of support,” he said when asked what friends and acquaintances say to him. “I think that people understand that this dispute is about class size and composition, mainly composition.” School is scheduled to resume Sept. 2 but hopes are not high that a settlement can be reached before the start of the new school year. Ashby said he hopes the support for teachers continues and said people see through the government’s plan to provide $40 per student per day as long as classes are out. “I think the government’s $40 per day to keep kids out of school was perceived as a bad move,” he said. He’s also critical of the suggestion he’s heard that taxpayer money go to subsidize Playland, a business, to provide people a place to take their children. Ashby noted that teachers have come down on their wage demands but are still strident about class size and composition, willing to give up pay to make their point and take the financial hit. “The longer I stay off of work the less money I have for my family,” he said. The B.C. Liberal government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation remain in a stalemate, and both sides are taking liberties with a media blackout to publicly pin the blame on the other side. Education Minister Peter Fassbender took to the radio talkshow circuit last week, saying government negotiators are ready to negotiate “24/7” to reach a deal in time for Labour Day.
Heather Colpitts/Langley Advance
Rob Ashby adjusted signs leaned against the fence of the Langley Education Centre Monday when local picketing resumed after summer. Sunday it was BCTF president Jim Iker’s turn to play the blame game, calling on the government to bring about a mediated settlement. Iker said he had been in “regular contact” with Peter Cameron, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association’s chief negotiator, throughout the summer. “The holdouts have been government and their unwillingness to enter full-scale mediation and compromise,” Iker told teachers at the union’s summer convention in Kamloops, issuing a challenge to Fassbender. Vince Ready, a well-respected mediator who has ended many bitter labour disputes over the years, had initial meetings with both sides, but has declared he’ll only re-enter negotiations once the two sides are closer together.
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– With files from the Vancouver Province.
Heather Colpitts/Langley Advance
Longtime teacher Rob Ashby was on the picket line Monday at the Langley Education Centre. Langley is one of three B.C. districts behind pickets starting this week.
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