Teachers ask for 15 per cent wage increase over three years

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC Teachers have finally made a wage demand in their ongoing negotiations with the province.

The BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) is asking for a 15 per cent wage increase over three years: a three per cent in the first year, and another six per cent in the second and third.

BCTF President Susan Lambert points out that the $48,083 starting salary for a BC teacher falls behind those of other provinces. In Alberta, for example, a teacher’s starting wage is $61,038. In Saskatchewan, it’s $53,327.

“We had never set a wage mandate,” she says. “We had talked about the gap between teachers salaries in British Columbia and those across the country but we have never set. This is the first time we have established a wage mandate.”

Lambert was asked if she thought the province would entertain this because it has offered no wage increase.

“In our view there have been public sector unions that have broken the net zero mandate,” she says. “The nurses have, so did CUPE just recently. For public education, I think the net effect of a decade of under-funding has brought us to the place where we simply cannot afford a net-zero mandate.”

The total package if approved would be worth $300 million. They’ve been back and forth from the bargaining table over 70 times.

“Yes, $300 million is a lot of money,” she adds in a release, “but look at the scale of the endeavour… It’s certainly a lot less than the cost of the stadium roof I see every day from my office window!”

Teachers say the provincial government has stripped $336 million out of the education budget every year for the last decade. They are hoping to jump start talks with their employer by presenting this as a reduced set of demands, five months after starting strike action.

BC’s Education Minister George Abbott says a net-zero policy on wages has been in place for years, so a 15 per cent raise for teachers simply won’t happen.

“There’s nothing new there,” he says. “We have signed dozens of agreements based on net-zero, and we won’t be deviating from it because the Teachers’ Federation don’t believe they should be subject to it.

“…It may be less unreasonable than what we have seen previously, it still remains hugely at odds with the net-zero mandate, which this government has at this challenging, troubled economic time.”

Lambert says talks won’t move forward unless the government changes its zero increase policy for public sector unions.

Labour relations expert weighs in

A labour relations expert says there’s no way teachers are getting that kind of wage increase.

Mark Thompson with UBC’s Sauder School of Business says the call for a 15 per cent hike over three years may open the door to more bargaining.

“But I’m still pessimistic about a settlement coming out of the bargaining table because that’s only happened once under this system of province-wide bargaining,” he says.

He says it’s a big move by teachers but points out the government is unlikely to break its two-year wage freeze that all other public sector unions agreed to, albeit unwillingly.

Thompson says if teachers do get anything, it won’t be anywhere near 15 per cent, and that this may only serve to lengthen their strike.

Teachers began job action on the first day of school last September and since then they have refused to write report cards or meet with principals.

-With files from The Canadian Press

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