BC Teachers are back at the picket lines today, just as unsure as everyone else if school will be back in session on time.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender had indicated bargaining could resume this week, though he has faced much criticism for other comments made in the media during a blackout.
First Vice President Richard Giroday for District 57 says the blackout is important to keep mud-slinging at the bargaining table and not in the public eye.
“It’s very frustrating to us,” he says. “I know Jim Iker at the summer leadership conference, which I just came back from, and in his main address to the conference, he spoke about how disappointed he was in the fact that Minister Fassbender had been out in the media, talking points, and it’s very discouraging.”
Giroday says Fassbender’s comments about 24/7 bargaining aren’t sincere, as the BCTF has waited at the table for the Minister to make an appearance.
“The bargaining team has been waiting all summer to bargain,” he says. “It’s not that they haven’t been available, they’ve been waiting to bargain and it has just never taken place.”
“We’re at the table, we’re waiting. Come sit down, get Vince Ready, let’s mediate a settlement before school starts on September 2nd,” Giroday says.
(Pictured: Teachers and CUPE workers on the picket line outside of Duchess Park Secondary in Prince George)
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