The BC Public School Teacher’s Association has created a report titled “Bargaining, Options, and
Moving Forward”. From the report:
Executive Summary
Bargaining in the K-12 public education sector is never a stand alone exercise. Collective
bargaining in our sector has yielded mixed results in terms of the bargaining process.
There has been a variety of circumstances that have influenced bargaining outcomes.
This round of bargaining is particularly unique in that it has occurred and is affected by
several converging events:
Agreement expires (June 30); initial meetings (March); bargaining process issue, the
provincial–local split of issues; BC Supreme Court ruling (April 13) and a
government–BCTF consultation/reconciliation timeline (referred to as the Bill 28
matter); themes and objectives (May 24) to the first set of proposals (May 31); early
talk of a strike (April-May); 90% strike vote (June 24-28); essential service
designation for Phase 1 of the BCTF multi-phase strike plan (July 26, August 5);
strike notice (August 31) Labour Relations Board; the provincial–local split of issues
and the three decisions of Arbitrator Jackson (August 28, September 2, September
17); BCTF withdraws from the Bill 28 discussions (September 13).
Regardless of the bargaining environment and the converging events identified above,
the goal must always remain a negotiated collective agreement. The purpose of this
paper is to identify processes that, when actioned, can create the necessary reason for
movement on the parties’ respective bargaining agendas.
Leave a Reply