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Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • F R I D AY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4
Teachers to vote on full strike after pay cut Tom Fletcher Black Press The BC Labour Relations Board has upheld an employer bid to cut teacher pay by 10 per cent in response to rotating strikes and refusal to perform some duties outside classroom hours. BC Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker said d Wednesday the W If approved, pay cut and partial of memthis would likely lockout bers is “a punimean a full-scale tive action” that is unfair to teachers strike within the performing their classnext two weeks essential room duties. In response, the ~ BCTF BCTF will hold another vote June president 9-10 to authorize Jim Iker full-scale strike action. Rotating strikes are to continue next week while the strike vote is held and counted. “If approved, this would likely mean a full-scale strike within the next two weeks,” Iker said. Falling right in the middle of testing season, report cards, and year-end celebrations. That means final exams and grades could potentially be in jeopardy, as could the final days of school for Grade 12 students. Chilliwack Teachers’ Association president Clint Johnston said it’s a decision not taken lightly. “Are we happy that students’ last weeks at school will be impacted, absolutely not, of course not, but does that mean that we should stand down and not advocate for our members to get a fair deal?” asked Johnston.
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A group of Sardis secondary students walked out of classes Wednesday to support their education and show the teachers union and government they’re fed up with the ongoing labour dispute. PROGRESS PHOTO
Chilliwack students join school walk out Katie Bartel The Progress A group of students at Sardis secondary are fed up with the ongoing battle between teachers and the government. At 9 a.m. Wednesday morning approximately 40 students walked out of class as part of a province-wide student walkout. Across the street from the school they held up bright yellow and orange signs with messages that included: “I need math to pass!” “Strike + Lockout = Walkout” “Our education is not a game so stop playing with it!” By 10:30 a.m., 13 students remained. Some left the school,
others went back to class. Those who remained said they’d be there until the end of the school day. “They’re the ones fighting, but we’re the ones suffering,” said Grade 10 student Paige Battilana, the only student to walk out of her class. “Both sides say they’re doing this for us, yet we’re the ones caught in the middle,” said Grade 11 student William Wiev. Grade 11 student Autumn Burhof, an avid dancer, lamented over how she and her peers in dance class spent all year practicing and preparing for the year-end recital, only to have it possibly not go ahead “because teachers can’t be on school
property after school hours,” she said. “If they can do a lockout, then we can do a walkout.” Grade 12 student Abra Yeomans is worried she won’t get into the universities she applied for if her high school transcripts are incomplete as a result of the lockout. “If they’re not able to mark my exams then my transcripts are going to be incomplete,” said Yeomans who’s applied to Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Thompson Rivers University and the University of Victoria. “When they go to my transcripts and review my grades and if they’re incomplete, I’ll be turned away auto-
matically. “Its not fair,” she said. “The government is using us as pawns,” said Grade 11 student Ryan Keeping. “Teachers want to be able to help us, but the government won’t let them.” The B.C. Student Walkout for Students was organized through Facebook by a Grade 12 student in Surrey as a way for students across B.C. to take a stand for their education. On the Facebook event page it says: “The students in British Columbia have been put in the middle of the labour dispute between the BCTF and the Continued: STUDENTS/ p13
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