Teachers Refuse B.C. Premier’s Request to End Strike during Negotiations

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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B.C. Premier Christy Clark has formally urged once more to both sides in the teachers dispute to return to the negotiating table and resolve the crisis for the sake of getting students back into classrooms. Clark confirmed that the Teachers’ Federation has refused to suspend their strike while negotiations continue.

Premier Clark stated that “they are still demanding twice as much as other public sector workers have received, about 150,000 workers in the public sector, dedicated men and women who serve British Columbians every day have settled for raises that were fair. Fair to them, fair to taxpayers. It’s just not right, I don’t think, to demand a $5,000 signing bonus that no one else in the public sector has received.” In addition to that, the Premier urged that “For heaven’s sakes, 150,000 other public sector employees who work just as hard have settled for far less. They didn’t get a $5,000 signing bonus, they didn’t get unlimited massage, they didn’t get an extra day off every year. It needs to be realistic, it needs to be in-line with what we’ve done with other public sector unions.”

Meanwhile on the other hand, the BCTF has confirmed to have taken its request for unlimited massages off the table. It mentioned that “so, I want to today strongly urge the union leadership to bargain seriously, to bargain with a hope that we can get to a negotiated solution to this that will be fair to their members, that will be fair to taxpayers, that will be fair to the other 150,000 public sector workers that have already settled for a deal that we can afford.”