This morning - the fact-finder that Victoria appointed to look into the possibility of a negotiated agreement between the BC Teachers' Federation and the BC Public School Employers' Association has reported back and stated that it is 'unlikely' that a negotiated contract would be forthcoming - see the press release from the Government of BC here
Meanwhile - on Twitter, George Abbott announced that legislation to impose a contract on teachers' would be drafted over the weekend and presented to the BC Legislature on Monday. George Abbott is sad that a negotiated contract could not be arrived at
Of course, this will not be the 1st time that a contract has been imposed on BC Teachers' - this act has been done by the current BC Liberal government, it was also done by the former Glen Clark NDP government as well
Finally - one individual I talked with this morning said "Why not binding arbritation or mediation?" The real problem with this is Victoria has upcoming negotiations with the BCGEU, HEU, etc this year and if Victoria did, in fact, give a wage increase to the BC Teachers' Federation, the BC Liberals' would be bound, at least morally, to give the same to all other unions
In my humble opinion - we simply can not afford wage hikes for our public sector workers (incuding teachers') at this time. That is not to say we, as a society, don't value their work (we do!) but the economic circumstances dictate that we can't afford their requests, at this time, but if/when economic circumstances permit it - then yes, we should afford our public workers' wage/pension hikes..
SBF
Update: George Abbott on CKNW talking about a legislated contract for teachers - read here
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