Bill 22 is an unjust law that hurts teachers and students. As an employee of School District 22 for going on 28 years, I have seen my share of unjust laws and policies and have been affected by them in my career as an on-call teacher.
Let me state from the outset that I believe in the process of negotiation. I value the Vernon Teachers Association and the BCTF and their desire for a contract that protects all teachers, whether on call, full or part time, whatever their specialty or qualifications.
When I began teaching on call, there was no central dispatch and no system of job posting. This meant that anyone – administrators, teachers, or secretaries – might be calling the “sub” for the day. When a job came up, whether or not a person heard about it depended on who they knew in the school or on the “grapevine.” Over the years, the process of negotiating contracts resulted in central dispatch and three-day job postings (visible in schools and available on the district website).
The effect that Bill 22 can have on contract teacher seniority has already been felt by on-call teachers who did not have seniority provisions in terms of call-out and hiring. For the past decade, on-call teachers have been dispatched from the least paid to the highest paid. The effect of this cost-saving measure on my livelihood was a change from teaching around 90 days in my best year to one day (or less) in my worst year. Without seniority protection in the contract, the employer has all the rights and no obligation to recognize years of loyal work.
Other unions – nurses, millworkers, government employees – have seniority from Day 1, which applies to their dispatch, pensions, wages, and hiring. Friends in other unions cannot believe that after 27 years I am no closer to a permanent classroom position nor that I may work one or two days a month.
Despite years of acquaintanceship with teachers, principals, school board members, and district personnel, I am probably farther from a job than the newest member of the teaching profession.
I know that after 27 years of teaching that I am a better teacher than I was on that first snowy December day in 1984, teaching Socials and Art in a drafty VSS classroom.
Like my colleagues who have contracts, I stood on the demonstration line in front of a school. I saw many passersby honking their horns or giving us a thumbs-up in support of our action. Sadly, a few drivers glared with a thumbs-down or turned their heads away as if too ashamed or afraid to give the time of day to those entrusted with shaping their grandchildren’s future.
I respect the teachers who taught in the one-room schools with little remuneration back in the “good old days.” They had the support of parents, used corporal punishment on behaviour problems, and few of their students went on past Grade 8. As soon as those teachers were able, they took further education, earning university degrees at summer school or by correspondence at their own expense to keep ahead of the changes in society.
If we live in the same non-technological world, perhaps that one-room schoolteacher might be today’s norm. But parents, employers, and the governments want us to produce the citizens of tomorrow, not the farmers and factory workers of the past.
I realize that someone at the board office may have the task of cutting out this letter and putting it in my personnel file and that my slim chances of getting work may be further diminished.
I worked for five employers this past year and am supported by a unionized millworker, so my family will not starve or become homeless.
I feel that the public has a right to know that the government does not have any concept of fairness to educators, regardless of the repercussions this may have on me personally.
Thank you for allowing to exercise my freedom of speech.
Karen Bouchard
Vernon
