THE FREE PRESS
UP FRONT
Page A3
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2001
 PHONE 564-0005
                                                   BCTF may take job action to spur negotiations
    Slow progress at the bargaining table could mean the beginning of job action by B.C. teachers as soon as next week.
    Sandra Davie, president of the Prince George and District Teachers Association, says teachers province-wide haven’t ruled out moving to their first phase of job action after discussions last week and early this week.
    “The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association refused to remove concessions from the table," says Ms. Davie. “When they said no to removing concessions I'd say it was a problem.”
    Ms. Davie, along with local bargaining chair Leslie Hay and teacher rep Dick Gilbert, will be in Vancouver this weekend for the B.C. Teachers’ Federation rep assembly, held three times annually, She says a report on progress in negotiations between teachers and employers is expected, as well as a recommendation from the BCTF’s bargaining team on whether or not to give 72-hours notice to move to job action.
    Earlier this month teachers voted 91.4 per cent in favour of job action. That job action hinges on the decision by the labour relations board on how much, if any, of the teachers phase one of action falls under essential services legislation. That decision, says Ms. Davie, is expected by the end of this week — just in time for the weekend assembly. If it comes when expected teachers could be in a strike position by Monday.
    In one of their most recent bargaining updates, the BCTF said that “we may well need to take job action to move negotiations along.”
    Phase one of job action would see teachers still provide classroom instruction and extra-curricular activities. But what Ms. Davie calls “the bureaucracy of teaching” — things like staff meetings, committee involvement and report card writing — would stop.
    Currently the union and employers are at loggerheads at the table over class size limits. Employers want to remove the limits, while teachers want to see them dropped even more for intermediate and senior grades.
    Teachers have been without a contract since theirs expired June 30 of this year. There’s been little agreement on any of the issues, says Ms. Davie. That includes class sizes, teaching to non-teaching staff ratios and salary. Teachers are asking for a 34 per cent wage hike over three years to stay competitive in a cutthroat teacher-shortage. Employers are saying that with budget restraints such an increase is impossible.
 Do Juno/Gagnon?
 Marel Gagnon (with back-up guitarist Bill Starrett) is up for three Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and has made it into the semi-finals for the Juno Award this year. The PG singer/songwriter played a dramatic concert this week at the PG Playhouse, frank peebles/free press
 Foothills speed limits won’t be changing yet
    Drivers will still be able to fill their need for speed along most of Foothills Boulevard, after a plea by neighbourhood residents to lower the limit was rejected by city council.
    The Foothills Community Association went before council Monday night, requesting that council’s August decision to up the limit from 50 km/h to 60 km/h along Foothills as far as Ochakwin be partially
  reversed. Association representative John Vogt asked that the limit be lowered back to 50 km/h between Fifth Avenue and Ochakwin until the next speed limit review, citing safety concerns and flaws in the original study by city engineers.
     “We’ve calculated it would take motorists an extra three seconds to pass through our community. We believe that is worth our children’s safety,” says Mr. Vogt.
     Mr. Vogt says that, at last count, 88 primary school-age children cross Foothills going to and from school. Although the main crosswalk areas being used are inside the 50 km/h zone, he says that drivers cresting the hill doing 60 km/h don’t have enough time to slow down. Also, he says, cyclists coming down Cranbrook Hill are at risk where it intersects with Foothills Boulevard.
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