As the teachers’ union and their employers bargain a new contract, the Richmond Teachers’ Association president is warning current proposals could result in a “significant loss” for local teachers.
The current contract expires on June 30, and the two parties, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, have been in discussion about the new contract since February.
Despite proposals they don’t like, RTA president Liz Baverstock said she remains “optimistic” - since both parties are still at the table and talking, she believes a deal is possible. However, she is not impressed by what’s being offered to teachers.
“It would be a significant loss for Richmond what’s being proposed by BCPSEA,” Baverstock said. She would like to see the proposals put forward by the bargaining agent, B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, modelled to see what the impact would be locally.
“I’d be asking to model the language so I could see how my district would be impacted,” Baverstock said.
When the Supreme Court restored contract language in 2016 about class size and composition, stripped away by the province in 2002, it meant school districts were to revert to 2002 levels of staffing. However, contracts differ from school district to school district in both class size and composition.
Baverstock pointed out Richmond has a strong contract and, by her estimation, if what’s being proposed by BCPSEA is accepted, Richmond would lose 120 of the 310 full-time staff members that have been brought on since the ruling in 2016.
BCPSEA, however, said the BCTF's claim that their proposals will result in larger classes and fewer provisions for special-needs students is a “mischaracterization” and they have put forward proposals so teachers and principals can decide at a local school level how best to use resources, including the class size.
In an online statement, BCSPSEA claims that the restored language goes back to the 1980s, and if it had remained in the collective agreement between 2002 and 2016, it would have been renegotiated and “evolved as classrooms and student designations have evolved.”
BCPSEA has stated that BCTF is proposing a seven-per-cent increase in salaries, but Baverstock pointed out B.C. teachers are at the lower end of the pay scale across the country.
“We have to start closing that gap,” she said, something that is especially important when recruiting and retaining new teachers.
