Victoria Teacher Says Vote No to Tentative Agreement

A former president of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association is urging the province’s teachers to vote no at Thursday’s ratification vote.

Victoria teacher Tara Ehrcke took to her blog Staff Room Confidential to suggest that the tentative agreement between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the province is “not the deal that will restore sanity to public education.”

“Despite what I know was a herculean effort on the part of our bargaining team, I very much hope that BC teachers will vote no to the tentative agreement,” she goes on to write. “After five weeks of strike, and twelve years of legal battles, this is not the deal that will restore sanity to public education and it is not a fair deal for teachers and students. Just as teachers in Saskatchewan rejected a deal to ensure a better outcome, I hope BC teachers will consider a no vote to let our team know we have to go back to the bargaining table.”

Ehrcke says the agreement will basically be throwing away the court victory won by the BCTF and it will create the “perfect opportunity for government to lock us out to try and force us to agree to something far inferior.”

Calling the deal still not good enough Ehrcke says teachers can continue the strike, or choose to return to work and continue bargaining. Teachers should continue to focus on the main issue of classroom conditions and she points to when Saskatchewan teachers rejected the first deal which had a 5.5 per cent wage increase over four years.

Ehrcke argues that the $75 million per year funding to be added to the Learning Improvement Fund will only mean a slight improvement in Districts where sizeable portions are spent on Education assistants or senior District staff.

Meanwhile the BCTF executive committee has released their own list of reasons why teachers should vote yes to the deal. The union says the deal will create more teaching positions in the province, charter rights will be defended since E80 has been knocked off the table. No concessions have been made and improved benefits are just two more reasons to vote yes says the BCTF. It also points to a modest salary increase and a new allotment of prep time for elementary teachers as a plus in the agreement.

Teachers around the province will vote on Thursday as to whether or not they accept the terms of the tentative agreement. If a yes vote takes place, students could be back in the classroom as soon as next week.

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