Thousands attend B.C. teachers' rally at legislature

Several thousand striking teachers and their supporters marched through Victoria to the front lawn of the British Columbia legislature Tuesday to protest back-to-work legislation.

Once at the legislature the boisterous crowd listened to speeches from B.C. Teachers' Federation president Susan Lambert, who called the government's back-to-work legislation, Bill 22, brutal and cynical.

B.C. NDP opposition leader Adrian Dix told the crowd that it was the government that was provoking a confrontation with teachers.

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair said teachers were standing up for children and all workers.

Estimates by legislature security officials put the size of the crowd at roughly 5,000 by noon, after organizers drew support from other public-sector workers by picketing government offices in the provincial capital earlier in the morning.

The rally wrapped up around 1:30 p.m. PT.

Teachers picket government offices

The president of the Greater Victoria Teachers Association, Tara Ehrcke, said their members set up picket lines at 21 workplaces across the city, but none in front of schools, which the Labour Relations Board has forbidden teachers from picketing.

"It's a co-ordinated action with the B.C. Federation of Labour. And so we're inviting any workers to respect the picket lines and join us at the rally today," Ehrcke said.  

The BCFL also urged thousands of union members in Victoria to join the striking teachers. The federation distributed handbills to government workers encouraging them to respect the BCTF picket lines and report to union offices to claim strike pay for the day.

But after the picket lines went up outside government buildings, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon issued a statement condemning the action.

"In government's view, this strike activity is illegal, and we will seek an injunction from the Labour Relations Board confirming our position today," Falcon said.

The Labour Relations Board did convene a hearing by conference call Tuesday afternoon to hear submissions on the issue of teachers' pickets outside government offices.

The LRB said in a release later Tuesday that the BCTF had agreed to stop picketing, so the board considerd the matter closed unless more picketing occurred.

Bill 22 focus of anger

Bill 22 an attack on free collective bargaining, Sinclair said, because it will suspend both the BCTF's strike and the partial job action underway since September.

"It's the right to negotiate a collective agreement and not have one shoved in your face by the government full of concessions and zeroes," Sinclair said on Monday.

Many teachers caught morning ferries from Vancouver, prompting BC Ferries to warn travellers to expect heavy traffic on several sailings, including the return trips at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen.

The BCTF said it had hired 17 buses to get teachers from the mainland to the event and is expecting another 600 teachers to travel as foot passengers on ferries.

The province's 41,000 teachers launched a three-day strike on Monday after the government introduced legislation last week to end the contract dispute.

But the government shows no signs of budging from its net-zero mandate in the teachers' contract talks, which effectively freezes all public sector wage and benefits packages at current levels.

The finance minister said any wage increase for the teachers would trigger clauses in other public sector contracts.

"The reality is if the teachers achieve their 15 per cent wage increase objective that would have a 'me too' effect on 130 other agreements that have already been signed," said Falcon.

"The price tag for the public would be in the multiple billions of dollars — additional dollars that would obviously sabotage any hope of ever getting to a balanced budget."

Strike means savings for government

In another development, Education Minister George Abbott said the government is saving about $11 million a day during the three-day strike, and all that money will stay in the system, possibly to improve special education.

"We are looking at what we might do with those savings within the education sector. Certainly one of the things we would look at is potentially the Learning Improvement Fund and bolstering it … but there may be other very appropriate things we might do with it as well," he said.

The Education Ministry created the Learning Improvement Fund after the courts ruled it had illegally removed class size and composition from the teachers' contract.

B.C.'s teachers have been without a contract since June and began job action in September. Key issues in the dispute are class sizes, help for special needs students and wages.

Some schools remain open, but parents are being asked to keep students at home.