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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