British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF): “A Union of Professionals”

The Canadian Social Economy Hub was asked by CIRIEC to undertake a study of the involvement of teachers in solidarity-based social protection systems. The purpose of the study was to identify mutual cases or experiences initiated by and for teachers. The research is been undertaken for the "education et solidarité" network (www.educationsolidarite.org) in order to improve the knowledge of teachers' involvement in "mutuals experiences" linked to jointed social protection schemes. The result of this research will be presented at an international conference in Paris in May, 2009.

To download the case study, please click here.

Case Study: Canada

British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF): “A Union of Professionals”

Aliez Kay, Research Assistant
Canadian Social Economy Hub, March 2009

British Columbia Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) Education System

There are currently 2010 primary and secondary schools in B.C., of which, 1655 are public and 355 are independent (2007-2008). Public schools operate under the supervision of an administrative officer and are “administered by a district school board.” Independent schools operate under “an authority that provides an educational program…[and] must hold a valid Certificate of Group Classification issued by the Inspector of Independent Schools,” (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2008b).

The projected number of students for the 2007-08 school year is 547,840 full time students, with roughly 166,000 secondary students from grades 10-12. Some of the current challenges facing the education system are: declining enrolment; devolution of First Nations Education; and, changes to graduation requirements (Cormode, McKitrick, Smith, 2008).
In Canada, education is within the jurisdiction of the provincial – not the federal – governments.

British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF)

The British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) is a professional trade union currently representing 41,000 teachers throughout the province of British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. Founded in 1917 by a group of city teachers from Vancouver and Victoria in southwestern B.C., the history of the BCTF is a history of advocacy, action and initiative towards students’ learning conditions and teachers’ rights in British Columbia.

From its establishment, the BCTF has been faced with contentious issues: one of the first was the feeling, on the part of rural teachers, that the city-based origin of the BCTF ignored the unique needs of British Columbia’s rural teachers. This early dissatisfaction persisted throughout the 1920s and 30s and led rural teachers to establish the Rural Teachers Association (RTA) in 1938. The RTA lasted until 1942 when the BCTF and the RTA resolved their differences and the RTA was dissolved (Novakowski, 2001). This remains an early example of B.C. teachers taking initiative to acknowledge and address an issue of concern.

These developments from the origin of BCTF, along with continued struggles and initiatives on the part of the organization throughout the mid-twentieth century, cemented BCTF’s role as an “organizing and activist” federation (L. Kuehn, personal communication, February 24, 2009). Some of these actions and initiatives include: the first teacher strike in “what was then referred to as the British Empire” in 1919 (Novakowski, 1999); the 1948 adoption of compulsory membership in the BCTF; the mid-1950s removal of discrimination in salary scales against women and the elimination of different pay rates for elementary, junior and senior secondary schools; the 1965 adoption of a new Executive Committee organizational structure; a Surrey teachers job walk off in 1974 after campaigns throughout the 1970s to reduce class sizes; and numerous struggles throughout the 1980s and 90s to address what was becoming an increasingly “hostile” environment for teachers to work in (Novakowski, 2001).

‘Crises’ and Development 1980s – 90s

The 1980s and 90s were a period of significant action and transition for the BCTF: events during this period had significant effect on the structure and organization of the federation. The early 1980s began with the BCTF embarking on a major initiative to expand the scope of bargaining. Until that point, school boards were only required to negotiate salaries and bonuses with teacher locals, but in the autumn of 1981 teachers obtained significant improvements having negotiated elementary preparation time, duty-free noon hours and grievance procedures (Novakowski, 1999).

In 1982 the B.C. provincial government implemented a major restraint program that included a wage-control program and cutbacks in education funding (Novakowski, 1999). BCTF then joined the rest of the labour movement in 1983 in organizing Operation Solidarity – a huge labour movement which saw 80,000 workers and citizens march downtown Vancouver to protest the legislative agenda of the B.C. government. The major gain for teachers from this movement was the right to negotiate seniority and severance provisions with local school boards instead of the provincial government.

1987 was a “watershed year in the history of the BCTF,” (Novakowski, 2000). In 1987 the B.C. government introduced Bill(s) 19 and 20. Bill 19 restricted existing rights for trade unions while at the same time including teachers as employees to those [now restricted] rights. Bill 20 created the BC College of Teachers, intended to certify and represent the ‘professional interest’ of teachers. As former BCTF President Ken Novakowski writes, [these actions] “coupled with the removal of statutory membership of all public school teachers in the BCTF, this initiative was viewed as a government attempt to split the loyalty of teachers, creating a union ‘BCTF’ and a professional organization, the ‘College of Teachers’ (Novakowski, 2000). The labour movement was angry over Bill 19, and teachers were opposed to Bill 20.

Following this move by the B.C. government, on April 28 teachers walked off the job in protest, and on June 1 joined the labour movement in a one day general strike to protest the bills. The actions (of both the government and the BCTF / labour movement) helped solidify in teachers’ minds the potential benefits of a stronger association with labour. The BCTF, faced, yet again, the task of having to voluntarily sign up teachers to their locals and the BCTF. Their resigning campaign was the “most significant mobilization of BCTF resources toward a single objective, as the BCTF organized and co-ordinated its 76 locals to sign up teachers into the BCTF and to opt for, in every local, the ‘union’ model of bargaining” (Novakowski, 2000). The campaign was hugely successful as 98% of B.C. teachers signed up to the BCTF.

According to Larry Kuehn, Director of Research and Technology with the BCTF, these events throughout the 1980s and the resulting resigning campaign and BCTF constitution of 1987, are “absolutely key” to understanding the nature of the organization. “Having to go through the process of registering members three times built the organizing experience that then carried over to other issues such as the illegal strike of 2005 and the fight with the government over Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) exams,” (L. Kuehn, personal communication, February 24, 2009).

A Unique Position in Canada

The “organizing and activist” role of the BCTF puts the organization in a fairly unique situation in Canada (L. Kuehn, personal communication, February 24, 2009). While affiliated with the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF), this past April 2008, the BCTF voted to officially withdraw their membership from the CTF. There were many factors to this decision, perhaps the most pertinent being BCTF’s strong ties with the Labour Movement in B.C., (an association not strongly shared with the Canadian Teachers Federation).

In 2003, BCTF members voted to officially join the B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFed) for a three-year trial period. In 2006, this trial period was followed by a vote in which teachers voted 78.2% to join the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and maintain membership in the BCFed. Some of the benefits noted by teachers since joining the B.C. Federation of Labour have been the ability for members to attend annual BCFed conventions and bring forward BCTF issues of concern to the wider labour movement, to become aware of the concerns of other workers in the province, and to receive “tremendous support” from the BCFed and local labour councils during teachers’ withdrawal of service in October 2005 (http://www.bctf.ca/AboutUs.aspx?id=3010).

With regards to its association with the Labour Movement, the BCTF maintains the following statement:

The BCTF is a “union of professionals.” We are a union because we collectively represent our members in bargaining and enforcing a collective agreement that determines the terms and conditions of our employment. As professionals we have broad latitude to exercise our expertise and autonomy in our working lives. As working people who work for a salary set through bargaining, we share a common experience with other trade unionists in both the public and the private sector. We not only share common experiences, we have common values and often common goals about the type of society we collectively hope to achieve. It is only right that we should be part of the organized labour movement in this province and this country. This means affiliation with the BC Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress. Through these affiliation, we are also able to join and participate in local labour councils. (http://www.bctf.ca/AboutUs.aspx?id=3016)

Further, the BCTF has many international connections and works extensively internationally. The organization has $500,000 million set aside in the budget for pursuing and supporting various international activities. Most of BCTF’s international activities are focused in Latin America. In terms of partnerships with other teaching organizations, the BCTF works often with the Quebec Teachers Federation and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation who, similarly, are not members of the Canadian Teachers Federation.

BCTF Teacher Benefits and “Mutualist Experiences”

For health care services, BCTF members and their dependents choose from a list of approved or contracted service providers. Contributions to the benefit plan are deducted from each teacher at pay, and benefits include a partial reimbursement of the fees charged by a service provider.
The Salary Indemnity Plan is the BCTF program that provides benefits for teachers on short- or long-term disability leave. Fee structures are determined each year at the BCTF annual general meeting. For the 2008-09 school year, each teacher contributes 1.5% salary earned: of that amount, 0.5% supports the short-term leave plan, and 1.0% supports the long-term leave plan and the Teacher Rehabilitation Program.

The BCTF website on ‘Salary and Benefits’ states that “a teacher may receive short-term benefits beginning the day after the last day of paid work or sick leave, if the teacher is prevented, by illness or injury, from performing his/her normal employment duties.” Further, long-term disability benefits “are available for teachers who have used up their short-term benefits, and may receive those benefits for up to a year being disabled from his or her ‘own occupation’, after that, a teacher must be suffering from a mental of physical disability from performing the duties of any gainful employment, and is designated as being disabled from ‘all occupations’” (http://www.bctf.ca/SalaryAndBenefits.aspx?id=4742). There are currently 1700 teachers utilizing the short- and long-term benefits plan.

Currently, the Salary Indemnity Plan holds assets of $231 million and liabilities of $167 million. The fund is overseen by the BCTF financial committee, and is subject to an annual actuarial review. Funds are diversified and invested conservatively, which leaves the BCTF Salary Indemnity Plan in sound financial condition.

Reaching “Maturity”

“We have reached a level of maturity here at BCTF,” says Larry Kuehn. “The structure of mutual insurance we have [primarily related to health] was set in the early 1980s and since then has, for the most part, remained the same – with a few ‘tweaks’ here and there.”

One of those ‘tweaks’ was the creation of the Teachers Rehabilitation Program. The Program is designed to help teachers who are off of work due to any number of the significant stresses related to the job, and to enable them to come back to teaching. Some of the options and benefits within the Rehabilitation Program involve providing former full-time teachers with part-time positions, or alternatively, if unable to return to the teaching profession, aiding teachers in the search for other employment possibilities. The Teachers Rehabilitation Program is funded through the 1.0% long-term benefit contribution of teachers’ Salary Indemnity Plan.

BCTF Response: CIRIEC Survey

British Columbia Teachers’ Federation
Trade Union
BCTF, 550 West Sixth Street, Vancouver, BC V5K 2B5
1917
40,000 members
150 staff employed
Target audience Public School Teachers k-12
Geographic coverage: Province BC
Who set up this “health and welfare” initiative? Trade Union
Organizational form? Mutual Society and Insurance company
Cover provided by this “health and welfare” initiative? Basic Cover for Illness/Invalidity
This “health and welfare” initiative merely recognized by public authorities
To benefit from basic cover, membership in initiative/structure is compulsory
Rate of contributions for basic cover is proportionate with salary
Contributions are deducted from source at pay
Services provided to the insured party include: partial reimbursement of fees charged by a service provider of his/her choice included on a list of approved/contracted service providers.
Cover provided for insured party and his/her family.

References

BCTF. BCTF Affiliation. Retrieved March 2, 2009 from http://www.bctf.ca/AboutUs.aspx?id=3014

BCTF. BCTF Experience with the labour movement since joining in 2003. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from http://www.bctf.ca/AboutUs.aspx?id=3010

BCTF. (November 2006) Salary Indemnity Plan Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Retrieved February 12, 2009 from http://www.bctf.ca/SalaryAndBenefits.aspx?id=4742

BCTF. BCTF Statement on the labour movement. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from http://www.bctf.ca/AboutUs.aspx?id=3016

Cormode, Sarah, McKitrick, Annie, and Smith, Janel. (May 2008). Assessment of Social Economy Content in Prescribed Learning Outcomes of British Columbia Curriculum. Canadian Social Economy Hub, University of Victoria, Canada.

Novakowski, Ken. (1999, September). Teacher rights and benefits: building on our past. Teacher Newsmagazine, Volume 12, Number 1.

Novakowski, Ken. (2000, April). Gaining full bargaining rights. Teacher Newsmagazine, Volume 12, Number 6.

Novakowski, Ken. (2001, January/February). The challenge of democracy in the BCTF: a long history of reform. Teacher Newsmagazine, Volume 13, Number 4.