BCTF sets course for full strike on Tuesday; study session planned for Monday

With an 86 per cent mandate for the BCTF executive in hand, Federation President Jim Iker will reportedly announce on Thursday morning that British Columbia's public schools will face a full scale Teachers' walkout on Tuesday, June 17th.

The results of two days of balloting by BCTF members were released Tuesday evening, as 86 per cent of the 33,387 teachers that cast ballots provided their union leaders with the option to withdraw full services to the public education system in the province.

A total of 28,809 BCTF members provided the overwhelming mandate to purse further job action if that were the course that the executive decided upon.

The background on that vote can be found from this media release from the BCTF.

And while many had hoped that the fact that no strike notice had been served by Wednesday afternoon,  might suggest that a full closure could be avoided, media reports late Wednesday evening suggest that the wheels are now in motion for a full shutdown.

Both the Vancouver Sun and radio station CKNW, as well as other media services highlighted the details of an email  to members that provides background to the membership and sets the timeline of events in motion.

Monday has apparently been designated as a Study Session day throughout the province, with classes likely to be cancelled, though that decision will reportedly be made on a District by District basis.

The official announcement of the planned full-scale labour action is to be made at a BCTF media conference on Thursday morning.

We will post the video from that press conference below, once it is made available by the BCTF on Thursday morning.

(Livestream link from 7:45 conference available here)

A helpful overview of where things stand between the two sides can be found from the CKNW website.

Over the last two days, talk show host Bill Good has hosted both BC Education Minister Peter Fassbender and BCTF President Jim Iker in studio.  Both offering their review of their positions in the dispute.

With both sessions offering up  a fairly concise example as to how the two sides remain so far apart.

You can access the Education Ministers appearance from the Tuesday morning Audio Vault (8:30 AM) while Mr. Iker's appearance is also available from the Audio Vault, he was on the program on Wednesday morning (8:30  AM)

We have more information on the latest developments as well as an archive of past items of note on the dispute available here.