Pressure appears to be mounting on the British Columbia government to accept binding arbitration to resolve the ongoing teachers' strike as a group of unions offered millions of dollars in loans to the educators and the premier was publicly heckled.
Nine unions banded together Wednesday to announce $8 million in interest-free loans for financially struggling B.C. Teachers' Federation members, who voted the same day on their union's proposal of binding arbitration to end the conflict.
"It's not going to be money that's going to end this dispute. No one will be starved out here," said B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair, flanked by eight labour leaders who vowed support for teachers outside a Vancouver high school.
"It's going to be (Premier) Christy Clark who must end this dispute by going to arbitration and solving the problems," Sinclair said.
Along with the loans, the B.C. Nurses' Union, which will soon be negotiating its own contract ending in March, donated $500,000 to the teachers' union to ensure the government does not "bleed them dry," said president Gayle Duteil.
The results of the teachers' vote on binding arbitration were expected Wednesday night though the provincial government has twice rejected that option as a way to end the strike, saying a negotiated settlement is the best method even after a mediator has declared the two sides remain far apart.
Soon after the unions announced their support for teachers, dozens of picketing teachers protested in Maple Ridge, where their loud chanting penetrated Clark's remarks at a municipal event.
Clark continued to reject the potential of binding arbitration as a solution that could allow half a million students to start school.
"I really do believe we can still get an agreement," Clark said in an interview. "And I know that emotions are running very high but I also know that sometimes when emotions are running high, it's sometimes when, strangely, these opportunities present themselves."
The government has said the results of binding arbitration could be expensive for taxpayers. A settlement awarded to B.C. doctors by an arbitrator more than a decade ago prompted a tax hike.
The province maintains the B.C. Teachers' Federation is asking for double the wages of 150,000 public-sector workers who have already settled contracts but a coalition of unions has demanded the government stop using them as scapegoats.
"Using us as an excuse not to settle with the teachers doesn't really sit well with us," said Stephanie Smith, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union, representing more than 60,000 workers.
"Whatever is given to one set is not automatically bargained with the next," Smith said, adding the BCGEU has sectoral agreements with a provision tied to the health sciences and nurses' unions, but not to the teachers' union.
On Tuesday, the union representing BC Hydro workers announced it was asking members to put forward $100,000 collateral for a loan for struggling teachers.
The amassing funds will be distributed to teachers through a general hardship fund managed by their union but not be used as strike pay, said BCTF vice-president Glen Hansman.
Teacher Nigel Reedman, who voted in favour of the binding arbitration proposal, said that option was not a "home run" for either side but that his union's attempt to end the dispute was a "good middle ground."
"We're ready to go back, we want to be back and we hope the government agrees with it," he said. "Honestly, I'm dying to get back. I love my job, and I want to get back, see my students, get back into my classroom and start teaching again. I hope it's soon."
