Our history

The Burnaby Teachers' Association has been in existence since 1929 and is a union of professionals representing approximately. 2.059 public school teachers in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

The Burnaby Teachers' Association was incorporated as a society on December 21, 1970. The history of the organization illustrates its effectiveness in working for the rights of teachers and students in promoting public education.

Our history is closely connected to the history of the BCTF.  For more information about the latter, go to http://bctf.ca/AboutUs.aspx?id=18894.

Here is a summary, with an emphasis on our bargaining history:

1969

• Mass actions by Vancouver teachers led to the first Learning and Working Conditions contract in the province.
• Because local associations were not unions, conditions often were not enforceable, and school boards were not required to negotiate.

 

1987

• Full collective-bargaining rights in each local via legislation.
• Teachers negotiated: class size, duty-free lunch in most places, fair personnel practice, professional development rights, and a healthy salary increase.
• The first BTA Collective Agreement was negotiated with Patti Jukes as President.

 

1988-94

• Hundreds of negotiations concluded without strikes or lockouts.
• Teachers undertook job action in some locals in the face of school boards acting unfairly in the negotiating process.
• Gains were possible, in part, because teachers were able to bargain directly with their employer.
• Most locals achieved provisions such as preparation time, duty-free lunch hours, class-size limits, and support for students with special needs.

 

March 1994

• Public Education Labour Relations Act, imposing provincial bargaining.
• BCTF became the bargaining agent for all public school teachers in BC.
• BC Public Schools Employers' Association (BCPSEA) was created to bargain for school boards.
• Local/Provincial split: all matters that had a cost were to be negotiated provincially while non-cost matters could be negotiated locally.
• Several locals, including Burnaby, with Peter Agg as President, worked together to seek an injunction against provincial bargaining. The injunction was not granted.

 

After 1994

• School funding deteriorated steadily
• Teacher salaries fell behind teacher salaries in Canadian provinces with comparable living costs
•  Less and less support for ESL students and students with special needs.
• Emphasis on achievement in accountability contracts made things even more difficult.
• Provincial bargaining structures prevented us from being able to protect teachers and students from the effects of these trends.
• Attempts at negotiations ended in government intervention and legislation imposing new collective agreements that brought few improvements.

 

August 2001

• BC becomes the only jurisdiction to designate education an essential service, thus removing teacher’s right to strike.

 

January 2002

Bill 28, the Public Education Flexibility and Choice Act:

• Stripped collective agreements and cancelled the rights of teachers to bargain important provisions in the future:
1. class size limits removed,
2. Provisions on class size and composition stripped (including the language governing the inclusion of students with special needs).
3. For more information on Bill 33 go to http://bctf.ca/publications/SchoolStaffAlert.aspx?id=6002
• Removal of provisions concerning non-enrolling teachers ratios.
• 10,000 teachers, including a bus load from Burnaby, marched in Victoria during a day of protest.
• As of 2010, government and BCPSEA still refuse to restore these items, despite rulings from the ILO.

 

October 2005

• Provincial bargaining ends again with another legislated imposed contract.
• Teachers react with a two week illegal strike.

 

2006

• The first negotiated collective agreement since provincial bargaining.
• Bill 33 introduces class size and composition language into legislation, but the provisions cannot compare to the language that was stripped from collective agreements in 2002.

 

Lessons from the Provincial Bargaining Experiment

• The provincial table is a middle-of-the-road process that cannot meet vastly differing needs of locals around the province.
• 2006's hard won negotiated deal brought only minor gains for teachers
• For 12 years until then, provincial bargaining had not worked.
• In no round of provincial bargaining have teachers been able to adequately address concerns and issues.
• We have never brought a full set of objectives to the provincial bargaining table.
• Fears that provincial bargaining would undermine local efforts to address the problems and conditions in our schools were well founded.
• In Burnaby we have old, dysfunctional language on many issues that will never be addressed at a provincial table.

 

Stay tuned for more History as it is made!

Even better, get involved and make History yourself!