Could BC teachers stage an illegal walkout?

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Teachers are again rallying this afternoon in Vancouver to mark the end of their three-day walkout.

BC Teachers’ Federation President Susan Lambert has said their legal walkout ends tomorrow, but she has not ruled out further job action.

“I’m keeping my options open as to what happens on Thursday,” Lambert tells News1130. “I know there will be resistance to the continuing passage of the [back to work] legislation. What form that will take is up to the individual members.”

However, Lambert later backed off from the aggressive tone, promising parents would receive proper notice of any further job action once decisions are made.

Marketing strategist Lindsey Meredith at Simon Fraser University believes an illegal walkout by teachers would be poor strategy. “What’s the problem with a wildcat strike? It turns an awful lot of people off.”

“If you stick a lot of parents with unforeseen costs and unforeseen problems, that’s when you start to lose the key PR battle,” says Meredith.

“From what I’ve seen of the BCTF, strategically, they’re not dumb enough to fall into that one,” he adds.

“Let’s face it, this is a war between the BCTF and the government and it’s fought publicly because these guys can not seem to sit down at the damn table and negotiate properly,” notes Meredith.

Labour lawyer Chuck Harrison says it’s up to the Labour Relations Board to determine what will happen to anyone violating the government’s essential service order. “If they get a complaint that there’s been a violation of the order, they would call the parties in and seek to have them commit to compliance with the order.”

“If that doesn’t happen very quickly, then they would probably go for the filing in court,” he adds.

Harrison explains things could get very interesting if the government passes Bill 22, which would introduce steep fines for both teachers and their union for an illegal strike. “For individual teachers, it’s $475 per day. For the union, it’s $1.3 million per day.”

Teachers plan to rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 2 p.m.

Some parents considering moving kids to private school system

The executive director of the BC’s Federation of Independent Schools Association says they’ve seen a jump in demand for private school enrolment.

“What we’re hearing from schools that are currently doing enrolment, they are seeing a number of inquiries of families wanting to consider enrolling their families into an independent school,” says Peter Froese.
    
With enrolment for most private schools expected in the spring, some parents are making the calls early, looking to see if there is space available or if they can be put on a waiting list for the upcoming school year.

But Froese says even though there are 350 private schools around the province, it’s hard to get in because many are already at capacity.

“In cases where there is opportunity, we are seeing that there are families that are indeed enrolling,” he adds.
    
Froese tells us the lack of report cards from many teachers this year due to the job action is one of the main drivers behind the influx in private school inquiries. While some parents are concerned with what’s happening with public education, he notes independent schools are not just about education but are also about values and philosophy.

“We would prefer not to have families enrol into independent schools because they are dissatisfied with what’s happening in the public sector. We need a strong public sector as well, ” explains Froese.