Advertisement

B.C. students plan their own protest walkout as teachers’ dispute drags on

B.C. students plan their own protest walkout as teachers’ dispute drags on

B.C. teachers are in their second week of rotating strikes as their contract stalemate with the Liberal government shows no sign of movement, so some fed up students are sending a message of their own by staging their own walkout.

Two Metro Vancouver high school students are using social media in an ambitious plan for students across the province to walk out of class at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning and protest outside their schools.

"The students in British Columbia have been put in the middle of the labour dispute between the BCTF [B.C. Teachers' Federation] and the Government for our entire schooling," organizers Victoria Barker and Mackenzie Timko say on their Save Our Students Facebook page. "For some of us, that means our entire thirteen years of education. The two sides are like parents who are divorcing and have stuck their children in the middle for the last thirteen years.

"Each side claims to be 'fighting for the students' yet each side fails to show how they are doing so."

The students' protest is meant to be resolutely non-partisan but BCTF president Jim Iker was quick to recruit the students as allies.

“They want to see smaller class sizes, they want to see the classroom composition guarantees and the minimum levels of specialist teachers supporting them, supporting all students," Iker told reporters while visiting a picket line outside a school in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, CKNW News reported.

[ Related: B.C. teacher strikes loom as budget shortfalls trigger layoffs ]

Teacher and blogger Ashley D. Mackenzie urged students to join teachers on their picket lines.

"I totally get it if you’re tired of this strike business," Mackenzie wrote. "I know that I am. I hate going on strike.

"You might be frustrated. You might want the teachers’ union and government to just sit down and figure ship [sic] out, to give you the education you deserve.

"So tell them that. Make a sign. Wave it at traffic. Let the public know that you care about your education. Just consider doing in on the picket line instead of making your own.

"And I don’t say that because I don’t think you can make your own decisions. I just say it because I think we’re fighting for the same thing."

Teachers last week began staging rotating walkouts four days a week after a limited work-to-rule campaign failed to put pressure on the B.C. government.

The province retaliated with a partial lockout set for later this month and docking teachers' pay by 10 per cent to account for the withdrawal of services.

The main issues are wages – the teachers want 13.7 per cent over four years, the province is offering 7.3 per cent over six – along with the union retaining the right to bargain class size and composition.

The two sides are talking (negotiations resume Tuesday) and BCTF vice-president Glen Hansman told the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils annual meeting Sunday a deal might be possible before the end of June. He suggested it could even wrap up this week.

But you'd have to look hard to find that kind of optimism anywhere else. The BCTF and the government have perhaps the most dysfunctional labour-management relationship in Canada, with only one contract actually achieved at the bargaining table in the last couple of decades. The others have involved legislation or grudgingly accepted mediators' recommendations.

Their history is dotted with job action and legal fights. The BCTF has challenged the government's wage clawback before the Labour Relations Board. A ruling is expected Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Save Our Students walkout has attracted almost 11,000 who've said they are going to participate Wednesday, along with a couple thousand maybes.

And the whole idea has sparked a lively debate on Facebook.

[ Related: B.C. teachers should get a raise, says B.C. education minister ]

Some are worried about the consequences of walking out of class.

"Will I get suspended if I do this?" asked Ivan Ta. "I am really scared and I've never been suspended before."

Others questioned how effective a one-day walkout will be.

"And after it's [sic] message has been made [which for the most part has been ruined by all of us here cracking immature jokes and declaring our intentions to skip], it won't be regarded as significant afterwards?" said Jimmy Chen.

"How's about we start a student union instead to represent the students of British Columbia and establish a lasting impact on the future of BC's public education system?"

Protest organizers are imploring people to stay around and picket with handmade placards but some apparently are going to treat it as an excuse to ditch school.

"im gonna go home and smoke pot," quipped Sean Shang Wallace-Chang.