Years of bitterness cloud latest bargaining round between B.C. and teachers

B.C.'s reputation as a hotbed of labour militancy, where strikes and lockouts shut down major parts of the economy or public service, has waned since the 1980s.

But there's one sector where time seems to have stood still – education.

The relationship between the main teachers' union and the B.C. government, which oversees province-wide collective bargaining, is perhaps the most dysfunctional in Canada.

B.C.'s public-school teachers voted overwhelmingly last week to strike or take any other job action the B.C. Teachers' Federation deems necessary to back its contract demands.

There's no expectation of an immediate walkout but the union representing 29,000 teachers hopes the threat, backed by an 89 per cent endorsement, will encourage the government's bargaining team to take its demands more seriously.

"We do not consider job action unless it's absolutely necessary," federation president Jim Iker said, according to CBC News.

The teachers would increase the pressure gradually, starting with withdrawing from administrative work and other duties that don't affect students, escalating to rotating walkouts and, if there's no settlement, a full-scale walkout.

"We do not want a strike, we want a deal," Iker said. "Take the unfair concessions off the table, come to the table with a reasonable offer, and put the necessary funding to that table."

[ Related: B.C. teachers vote overwhelmingly 'yes' in strike vote ]

B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender said the strike vote creates uncertainty for students, parents and school staff.

Both sides claim to be acting in the best interests of students. Victoria wants a long-term contract (it initially proposed a 10-year deal) that it says will ensure stability. The federation wants a "fair deal" for teachers "that also provides better support for students."

But parents are likely to ignore the battle for their hearts and minds and wish a pox on both houses. They've been here before.

As the Globe and Mail noted in a 2012 article, teachers only received the right to strike in 1987 – ironically by Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm, no friend of labour.

Since then, regardless of which party has been in power and what pattern of bargaining was employed, the results of negotiations were invariably unsatisfactory for both sides.

As The Canadian Press reported in 2012, the last time a strike loomed, the federation and the province have successfully negotiated only one contract since province-wide bargaining replaced district-by-district talks in 1994. That sweetheart deal was reached in 2006, a five-year agreement with hefty wage hikes designed to ensure public-sector labour peace through the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

The labour-friendly NDP government imposed a contract in 1998 after talks reached a stalemate.

When the Liberals first assumed power in 2001, they hobbled the teachers' right to strike through essential-services legislation. That was followed up a year later by a law taking class size, staffing levels and workload provisions out of the collective-bargaining process, CP said.

When the government unilaterally extended the teachers' contract in 2005, the teachers walked out for two weeks, a strike that the courts ruled illegal. The teachers eventually voted to return to the classroom but the federation was fined $500,000 for the walkout.

There was the threat of a strike in 2011, and again in 2012. That stoppage was averted after months of work to rule and a brief walkout only by the lukewarm endorsement of a new contract that expired last year.

The overarching factor in the relationship over the last decade is the teachers' bitterness over the Liberals' attempt twice to legislate the federation into impotence more than a decade ago.

Both bills were ruled unconstitutional after a 10-year battle, the second attempt dating from 2002 being struck down in B.C. Supreme Court just this January.

The B.C. government quickly filed an appeal and won a court injunction to delay implementation of the ruling. Aside from a $2-million damage award, the province believed it could be on the hook for up to $1 billion to restore staffing and class-size levels to those of a decade ago, CP reported.

The court case also revealed evidence of dirty tricks by the government, which apparently tried to provoke a teachers' strike in 2012 in a bid to win public sympathy.

[ Related: B.C. government, teachers in renewed talks after an 89 per-cent strike vote ]

Talks for a new contract are set to resume after the teachers' strike vote but it feels a little like a game of suicide chess.

Fassbender said the government is still awaiting a detailed proposal from the federation while the Iker said the union tabled its package a year ago, CP reported Friday.

The teachers are looking for cost-of-living adjustments, wage parity with other provinces and provision for smaller classes and more specialist teachers. Fassbender said the government is committed to reaching a negotiated settlement but has dismissed the federation's demands as unaffordable. The teachers believe the government is trying to bargain away the union's court victory.

Neither side seems to believe the other is prepared to bargain in good faith.

Fassbender this week brandished a document in the legislature that he claimed was teachers federation's strike plan, which Iker denied. Whether it is or isn't, the government's gotcha moment hardly seems conducive to lowering the temperature at the bargaining table.

Meanwhile, parents are forced to make contingency plans for child care in case their kids' school is behind picket lines.

And so it goes.