La WLP HATTLINI) L Lh BRITISH COLUMBIA A weekend ‘Education for Peace” conference drew more than 200 par- ticipants to White rock Saturday as educators, students and pensioners from points as distant as Seattle and Cran- brook gathered to discuss peace as a classroom issue. The day-long conference was organiz- ed by New Horizons Peacemakers, founded by former teacher Bette Pepper. Participants listened to various speakers including University of British Columbia pharmacology professor Dr. Tom Perry, and took part in three workshops on ‘‘Peace as part of the Social Studies Curriculum,”’ “‘Building a Peaceful World” and ‘‘Music and the Arts to Educate for Peace.” A featured speaker during the con- ference was Oakland, California film- a Ree aS : og See Participants look over book tables during a conference break. ‘Education for Peace’ conference draws 200 maker Vivienne Verdon-Roe whose 28-minute film ‘“Growing Up the Nuclear Shadow—What the Children Can Tell Us has won acclaim all over the continent for its emotional but sensitive treatment of how the threat of nuclear war affects school children. Also from the U.S. was teacher and lecturer Beverly Taylor from Seattle where teachers have achieved considerable prominence for their work in developing curriculum on peace. Educators also spent several hours discussing the issue for B.C. schools dur- ing a conference workshop session led by four panelists, UBC education professor Dr. Pauline Weinstein and Charles Ungerleider and Vancouver high school teacher Ernest Krieger and Eric Wong. Most of us think of vampire bats with revulsion, and thoughts of leeches makes our skin crawl. But at least vampire bats and leeches are doing what they were pro- grammed by nature todo. The same can’t be said about some humans, those who prey on the unemployed, for example. We have in Vancouver an outfit that calls itself Job Mart Magazine. It pro- mises to help you find a job, by providing you with a list of employers who want to hire. The fee for this ‘‘service”’ is $50. On the surface it sounds good. Who wouldn’t beg or borrow $50 if it meant getting.a job? But what do you get? You get the same list that appears in the daily papers which you can buy for a quarter. You can get the same list from Manpower for nothing. This outfit tells you that you can get your $50 back if you don’t get a job, provided that for 90 days you have phoned in to them every day (except Sunday) and have come in every time they have asked you for an inter- view. The whole operation is a scam, a skin game, aimed at parting you from $50. It’s being carried on by this outfit not only in Vancouver but in other Canadian and Australjan cities. It is also clearly an il- legal operation. Section 76 of the Employment Stan- Jobmart facing action for preying on jobless Harry Rankin dards Act states that ‘‘no person sahll re- quest, demand, charge or receive directly or indirectly payment from a person seek- ing employment, for giving employment -or procuring employment for him, or for providing information to him, or for pro- viding information to him respecting employers seeking employees.’’ The Trades Practices Act (B.C.) also provides that where a business is guilty of a “deceptive or unconscionable act”’ its business license may be lifted by the municipality concerned. The standing committee of council on community services, chaired by alderman Bruce Eriksen, has unanimously come to the conclusion, after an investigation, that “‘the publisher of Job Mart is operating a deceptive business, directly in violation of the Employment Standards Act,’’ and recommeded that the publisher be asked to appear before council to show cause why his publisher’s license should not be revoked. Council has endorsed this and Job Mart has been ordered to appear before council. The committee also recommended that the minister of labor be urged to in- itiate proceedings against Job Mart Publications under Section 76 of the Employment Standards Act. City council also endorsed this recommendation. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 25, 1983—Page 2 BCTF cuts off talks when gov't refuses more school funding The Social Credit government’s attempt to rid itself of a well-deserved reputation as the destroyer of B.C.’s education system fell apart when representatives of the province’s teachers walked out of negotiations with government officials last week. Despite pre-election statements from premier Bill Bennett, the representatives of the B.C. Teachers Federation found no in- dication that the government was about to reverse its draconian cutbacks in funding for the province’s schools. Cuts totalling $55 million this year have caused the closing of schools and the layoff of about 650 non-teaching staff, drawing the collective fire of teachers, trustees and parents who will take their anger to the polls in an anticipated spring election. Teachers had entered into the talks well aware that the whole arrangement may have been a pre-election gimmick, ‘‘but we felt a responsibility to our members and the education systém,’’ BCTF vice-president Doug Smart told the Tribune. The BCTF had become alarmed when education minister Bill Vander Zalm departed from his usual abusive rehtoric and teacher-bashing last month with an an- nouncement that drastic changes to cur- riculum would be ramroded through the system in September. “This was without any prior notice and with no consultation with anyone in the education field,”’ said Smart. It proved to be the last straw for the federation, which issued a blistering Statement demanding Vander Zalm’s resignation. In the meantime Bennett was facing the combined wrath of parents, children, teachers and trustees who greeted him with demonstrations at several stops during a whirlwind, election style tour of the Kootenays last month. Faced with such op- position to Socred cutbacks, Bennett an- nounced he would be willing to meet with teachers over the head of the education minister. The teachers took Bennett at his word, and on Mar. 4 announced their willingness to enter into negotiations around seven key proposals. _ The first proposal called for a tripartite commission consisting -of representatives from the government, the BCTF and the B.C. School Trustees Association to ex- amine curriculum, graduation requirements and provincial exams. It was similar to an earlier BCSTA proposal, and called for a moratorium on any curriculum changes un- til the commission filed its report. Teachers felt that issue was extremely urgent since Vander Zalm’s ‘“‘three Rs”’ changes — based on the fallacious notion that there are ‘‘frills’’ to be eliminated and replaced by core academic subjects for all students — would have forced many students out of the system, and dashed their hopes for a post-secondary education, said Smart. Other proposals included the right of teachers to bargain with local school boards on working conditions and other ‘‘personnel practices,’ and for a ‘‘provincial funding framework’’ by which teachers and boards could negotiate pupil-teacher ratios and: staff levels based on the total work force as it existed prior to the cutbacks last fall.. The BCTF also proposed funding that would enable boards to replace non-teaching positions — teaching assistants, librarians and non-academic employees — that have been cut since last summer. Additionally, they demanded the government ‘‘stop at- tacking the public school system, and its teachers”? and that negotiations in 1984 be free of ‘‘government interference.”’ Teachers have long been pushing for the right to bargain working conditions such as teacher-pupil ratios. A smaller classroom government grants from general revel . Socred legislation. size means better working conditions teachers, but it also means more time devoted to students’ problems, and hél better education for B.C.’s students, pointed out. Changes of this nature can only * brought about by provincial gov! legislation, but it must be accompaull adequate financing on the part 0 government. And it was on that point talks broke down, said-Smart. Government negotiators under dep vi education minister Jim Carter had eee ing to allow teachers to bargain aroun! ee sonnel practices, but within a fram full that involved no further government ! ‘io ding and in fact under the same conditl ‘7 that have prevailed since the introduction? cutbacks under restraint legislation. _ Since restraint legislation was intr including the notorious Bill 89 last s of education costs amounts to only a 2. a cent, trailing most other provinces. . tion funding also comes from comm! sti and property taxes, but the governmen ig ed commercial and industrial tax reve™ a last March and for the first time part the power to impose limits on local b budgets. Key among the teachers’ demands vast return of local control to the province’, fl “Al school districts, which included restor@! by of financial autonomy aus: er ed Knowledge of that fact didn’ t pr Vander Zalm from breaking the rules” silence and publicly commenting last that teachers were simply concern ‘‘wages and working conditions’’ at pense of the trustees. The BCSTA also spoke out on the issue ‘he withdrawing their observer from negotiations and accusing the governmem tot a “pre-election charade.” But associat vice-president Joy Leach also acc y" BCTF and the government of “arbitratl ‘of deciding on limiting BCSTA a to observer status. But BCTF officials said that decision ‘ee taken by the government alone. And, vi point out, the federation has contin ft urged the trustees to join with them in a CO! mon front against the cutbacks. tot Since the agreement to remain silent 0 the negotiations had been broken by al parties, the federation asked the governm mat for time out to comment on the stateme™ id When that was refused, BCTF pulled ou! the talks, said Smart. 4 The Socreds may have assumed that § wedge has been driven between the t and the teachers who, in the final anal aly are natural allies in the struggle to resto B.C.’s education system. de But as district after district faces {0 unavoidable chopping of services due millions of dollars of shortfall in govt ment funding, teachers, parents and trust! a continue to stage demonstrations that ta the Socreds — not each other — as tf culprits. That anger is likely to be carried the ballot box. a And, as history has shown, the teach és represent a formidable force by themselV® eo While the BCTF takes no partisan stan® ne provincial elections, individual teach of have. Through the Teachers Political Acti Committee, they successfully swung 4 ihe jority of the 30,000 teachers to vote im New Democrats in 1972, and teachers play* if a primary rolein that government’s deft 1975. That committee has been reforme rf under former BCTF presidents Bill Broad! t and Allan Blakey, and is poised to mak education a hot issue whenever Bent drops the election writ.