A group of local high school teachers took to the streets in protest this week well before Burnaby was scheduled to be hit by province-wide rotating teacher strikes Thursday.
Fed up by what they call a “confusing, contradictory and essentially unfair” partial lockout that started Monday, teachers at Burnaby Central Secondary gathered outside their school at recess and lunch on Monday and Tuesday to protest.
“These are not picket lines, only protests in the face of another government tactic that makes it more difficult for teachers and students alike,” six-year socials teacher John Decaire said.
Under the terms of the lockout, teachers are not allowed to arrive earlier than 45 minutes before the start of the first class or leave later than 45 minutes after the last one.
They are also barred from working or having school-related conversations with their students at lunch and recess, according to Decaire.
On his way to a rally at lunch Tuesday, he said he ran into some students who had questions about a test Friday, and he had to turn them away.
“I couldn’t answer them. I said, ‘I’m sorry; I’m not allowed to talk to you about that,’” Decaire said. “The students find it confusing. We’re doing this to try to highlight how ridiculous this is in our eyes.”
Burnaby Board of Education vice-chair Ron Burton told the NOW Tuesday that the lockout is just the teachers’ stage 1 job action turned on its head.
“My understanding of the lockout is all they did was take the job action the teachers were doing and said it’s now a lockout,” Burton said. “It’s just what they were already doing.”
But Decaire said that’s not accurate.
Under stage 1, he said teachers withdrew only out-of-class supervision, formal meetings with administration and written correspondence with administration.
“Everything else – report cards, marking, communicating with parents, all that stuff – carried on,” he said.
As far as Decaire is concerned, locking teachers out is just a way to justify the 10 per cent teacher pay cut threatened by the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association last week if a deal is not reached at the bargaining table by summer.
The Burnaby Central demonstrations, which have the endorsement of the Burnaby Teachers’ Association, have drawn a positive response from the public so far, according to Decaire
“We’ve gotten lots of honks, lots of waves and lots of positive comments on the street today and yesterday,” he said.
The demonstrations continue this week.
