Mediator Vince Ready in talks with two sides of teachers dispute once again

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It may be the most promising piece of information we’ve heard in weeks in the labour dispute that has delayed the start of school for children in BC.

Education Minister Peter Fassbender says his government’s chief negotiator, Peter Cameron and BC Teachers’ Federation President Jim Iker are in discussions with mediator Vince Ready.

Both sides in the dispute have agreed not to speak to the media about those discussions.

As to whether they have actually moved beyond a stalemate, we’ll have to wait and see. But now, we have some reason to think there is hope of that happening.

Fassbender does say Ready has been involved all the way through, but Ready very publicly walked out of a meeting at the end of August, saying the two sides were too far apart for him to work with them.

“Public pressure is mounting steadily,” says retired political science professor Norman Ruff. “I think there’s a kind of sense the public [doesn’t] care how you settle it, but it needs to be settled now, if not yesterday. So there’s intense pressure on both sides.”

“The government, I think commendably has sort of said we don’t want to legislate the teachers back. In the long run, that just creates more problems down the line. So, I think a lot of people are hoping that there is another way that collective bargaining can work. I guess we’ll just have to see in the next couple of days whether in fact the public pressure out there is enough to make each side move a little closer to make Mr. Ready’s job a viable one.”

Ruff thinks a negotiated settlement is still possible.

“If you look at the kind of message coming from the government, up to now they have been insistent that they weren’t going to legislate, but now they are bowing to necessity that if it’s going to continue, they’re going to be forced by public opinion to legislate. But if they can reach an agreement before the House sits, then that’s by far the best solution,” he tells us.

Fassbender appears to be softening his stance on the idea of legislating teachers back to work. MLAs are back at the Legislature October 6th.