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Teachers’ union reaches tentative deal with province

B.C.’s teacher union has reached a tentative deal with the province after being without a contract since last June.
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B.C.’s teacher union has reached a tentative deal with the province after being without a contract since last June.

On March 26 the province announced the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and BC Public School Employers’ Association had reached a tentative agreement, which “focuses on improving services for people and ensuring fair and affordable compensation.”

The deal is good news for the 300 members of the Sunshine Coast Teacher’s Association, according to president Jacquie Shelemy. “We are very happy to be presenting this agreement for ratification to teachers on the Sunshine Coast,” she said in a statement to Coast Reporter.

In a tweet last Thursday, BCTF said the deal was reached after “several days of marathon negotiations this week,” and the executive committee would be recommending the agreement to its 45,000 members employed by the province’s 60 school district. 

Details won’t be released until the membership ratifies the deal in a vote, but because of public health measures in place, the voting process must be reworked. “Given the current circumstances with COVID-19, our ratification vote will be different this time around,” said the union on Thursday. “We are already working on what that will look like. We will give updates as we have them.”

In her statement, Shelemy said that despite “challenging times,” the union was able to secure increases “greater than we have had at the table in previous rounds,” and class size and composition language that had been restored in the collective agreement by the Supreme Court of Canada will remain intact. Additionally, the union “will see recruitment and retention addressed,” she said.

“While the Sunshine Coast is a beautiful place to live and many people want to come here to work we are not immune to the teacher shortage. We are seeing more and more new teachers wanting to come to the coast so we are very pleased.”

Bargaining had been underway since February 2019, with discussions focused on class size and composition, guaranteed support for students with special needs, and the addition of more specialist teachers, according to the BCTF.