Grand Forks teachers take to the streets once more

Grand Forks teachers get a supportive wave from a passerby while the protested with placards on Central Avenue in Grand Forks on Wednesday, June 20. Photo Erin Perkins.

In a last hurrah before the end of the school year, 15 Grand Forks teachers took to Central Avenue in Grand Forks to continue their protest on Bill 22, Thursday, June 21.

After school, the group walked their homemade signs down Central Avenue from the union office across from the Aquatic Centre to the intersection in front of the Art Gallery protesting the government’s cuts to public education funding, Bill 22, class composition and the current mediation process between the union and the employer.

“This is a reminder that we are not giving up,” said Boundary Teacher’s Association president Norm Sabourin. “We have no faith but we have hope in the negotiation process. We dream we can settle this in the summer but that is probably just a pipe dream.”

“We are willing to negotiate and willing to compromise but the government is not.”

On Wednesday, March 28, the province appointed Dr. Charles Jago to mediate the new teacher contract between the government and the BC Teachers’ Federation. The teachers have been without a contract since June 2011.

If a new agreement cannot be reached by June 30, Jago will make a non-binding recommendation to government.

The 41,000 teachers throughout the province are continuing to withhold doing extracurricular activities although all their usual duties have resumed.