Burnaby Teachers Association to host rally Wednesday
The Burnaby Teachers’ Association (BTA) will be holding a rally on Wednesday, June 20, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. against Bill 22 and a legislated collective agreement.
Teachers and supporters will rally outside the constituency office of Burnaby-North Liberal MLA Richard Lee, near the corner of Willingdon Avenue and Lougheed Highway. They'll then walk along Lougheed to Holdom SkyTrain station.
“This government has underfunded education for over 10 years, creating classes with extreme needs and overstressing teachers," said BTA president Richard Storch, in a press release. “The employer, [BC Public School Employers' Association], has refused to bargain fairly with the [B.C. Teachers Federation] in more than 70 sessions because BCPSEA knew that the government had legislation waiting in the wings.”
Currently, the provincial government is paying an appointed mediator $2,000 a day when it has already stated a collective agreement will be imposed this summer, the release said. The province has offered a Learning Improvement Fund to address earlier bills that stripped class size and composition from teachers’ collective agreements.
The BTA says this funding, $60 million for next year, is "a pittance" compared to what it says has been taken away from public education in the past decade ($300 million per year, or a total of $3 billion dollars).
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