Schoolteachers in Richmond rallied outside the district head office Monday, as the threat of an all-out provincewide strike loomed large on the horizon.
About 100 local educators converged on Granville Avenue Monday afternoon to wave signs of protest and reaffirm the threat of walking out on strike as early as Monday.
That's the stark threat hovering over the long-running dispute between the BCTF (British Colombia Teachers Federation) union and the provincial government.
On Tuesday, Labour Relations Board ruled that teachers could strike for three consecutive days, as long as they give two days' notice.
But an hour later, the government trumped the ruling with legislation that will suspend their right to strike for six months while a government-appointed mediator attempts to find common ground.
However, it will take until next week for the new law to be debated and passed, affording the teachers a small window to legally walk off the job.
Teachers in Richmond - unhappy with the lack of funding for the province's education system and with classroom conditions - only worked from "bell-to-bell" Monday as part of what the BCTF called a "day of action."
"This isn't just an attack on teachers, it's an attack on the public education system," said Anik Tuason - a Grade 3 French immersion teacher at Bridge elementary - who was among the 100 or so protesting.
"We're more interested in issues like loss of seniority, lack of system funding, large class sizes, not just wages and benefits for the teachers.
"The system is not sustainable. These signs that we're using today are the same signs that were used 10 years ago. That's sad. That's pathetic. Nothing's gotten better."
Tuason lambasted the government for labelling the teachers an essential service, adding that, "an essential service means that people will die if we don't work."
Another educator, Cambie secondary creative arts teacher Terry Foster, said the government hasn't made an effort to negotiate. "No teacher wants to strike and stand in the way of a great education, but if we continue under these current contracts, we're only hurting students' education in the long term," said Foster.
And the dispute will likely take a turn for the worse in the middle of the week when the BCTF will ask its members, if they want to escalate job action.
Whether that means withdrawing their labour and walking out on strike is a matter for each of the teachers to decide, according to Richmond Teachers Association (RTA) president Al Klassen.
"Phase one of the job action (report cards) was an irritant and we're now in a situation the education minister calls 'intolerable,'" Klassen told the News Monday morning.
"With the threat of legislation, we have to respond. If they go ahead with the legislation, that's a big provocation.
"I think we are ready to up the ante." Klassen said, should the aforementioned "escalation" indeed mean a full-on strike as expected, then the BCTF would need to give its employer 72 hours notice.
"The LRB (Labour Relations Board) has to be involved," Klassen added.
Richmond School District's senior staff met Monday morning to discuss this week's escalation and how they might deal with an all-out strike.
Donna Sargent, school board chair, told the News that nothing will be happening this week that will affect the students. "It's business as usual," said Sargent.
However, Sargent said district staff are already preparing for the potential for the dispute flaring into an actual walkout by the teachers.
"We've not been informed of anything official about a strike, but (school district) staff are going through the strike manuals we have in order to review what might need to be done," she said.
"There is a huge strike manual that we work from, it's fairly extensive. It's mainly all about the communication of what will happen.
"(If there's a strike) there would be no classes at all."
The union has called for mediation, rather than legislation, to resolve the bargaining impasse, and, on Saturday, it won a public relations victory when delegates attending a B.C. School Trustees' Association meeting voted narrowly in support of that idea.
Initially, the motion urged the Liberals to bring in legislation that would end the bargaining dispute and the BCTF job action that began in September. But it was amended to call for "an expedited mediator" to assist the BCTF and the B.C. Public School Employers' Association in reaching a compromise. The motion passed by a 32-27 vote.
Education Minister George Abbott issued a statement Sunday saying government is considering mediation to resolve parts of the dispute, but not wages or benefits.
