Wednesday, April 2, 1986
eo

Newsstand Price 40°

Vol. 49, No. 12

ge issue ‘not finishe

d yet’

— page 12

B.C. teachers demand

full bargaining rights

‘Vote for education’

ann none .

Inan action organized by the Canadian Federation of Students, post-secondary
students from institutions across the Lower Mainland rallied in Vancouver's
Robson Square April 1 to mark the Day of Concern for Post-Secondary
Education and to conduct a mock election among members of the public.
Passersby were asked to mark their ballots for “‘Bill Bennett’ or
“education’’ — a stark choice but as student leaders pointed out, the devasta-
tion wrought on the education system by the Socreds has left voters with no

choice but to oppose the government if students are to have a future.

British Columbia’s teachers moved their
federation’ closer to the labor movement

Monday when delegates to the annual gen- _

eral meeting of the B.C. Teachers Federa-
tion voted strongly for the right to strike
and the right to bargain for working condi-
tions.

Capping what one past official termed
the result of 10 years of effort, teachers

adopted the measures contained in a
detailed Statement of Teachers Employee —

Rights, and handily approved a Statement

of Teachers Professional Responsibilities _
which included a call for teacher participa- _

tion in program and curriculum planning.

The 70th annual BCTF convention also
handily elected first vice-president Elsie
McMurphy to the president’s post, continu-
ing the tradition of action-oriented leader-
ship that has headed the federation for
several years.

In approving a BCTF lobby of the pro-
vincial government to enact legislative mea-
sures, delegates adopted with minor
amendments the recommendations of a

two-year task force on bargaining and pro- —
fessional rights struck at the federation’s

1984 convention.
The task force,
chaired by Vancou-
ver Secondary School
Teachers Association
president Mike Greg-
ory, had to contend
with the body of
opinion within the
BCTF that holds
that teachers as
“*professionals’”’

should not seek full McMURPHY

bargaining rights consistent with trade

union status.

In a key statement the task force report
noted that since teachers are also employees,
“the concerns of teachers in these two areas

are at once distinct and related. They are not —

inconsistent, but complementary.”
Judging from the convention voting, the
“professional only” camp in the federation
has shrunk.
The only serious challenge to the essence
of the statement of employees rights came in

the form of proposed amendments to strike —

two key clauses. One asserted the “right to
collectively bargain with school boards

teachers’ terms and conditions of employ- _
ment,” while the other stated local teacher —

associations’ right to “resolve an impasse (in
bargaining) by either arbitration or = legal
withdrawal of services.”

The proposed amendments were handily

see BCTF page. 12

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