{"id":8756,"date":"2017-01-18T11:34:54","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T16:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=8756"},"modified":"2026-01-30T16:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:57:35","slug":"canada-teachers-are-victorious-as-bargaining-rights-acknowledged-by-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=8756","title":{"rendered":"Canada: teachers are victorious as bargaining rights acknowledged by Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….<\/p>\n

An article from Education International<\/a><\/p>\n

After a hard-fought and divisive judicial battle, British Columbia\u2019s educators are celebrating a Supreme Court decision that reaffirms collective bargaining rights and opens the door to the hiring of hundreds of teachers.All governments across Canada will now have to respect bargaining rights and collective agreements.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhoto \u00a9 Kristian Secher\/www.thetyee.ca
\nClick on photo to enlarge<\/center><\/p>\n

The British Columbia (B.C.) government will likely have to hire hundreds of teachers and spend between $250 and $300 million CDN (roughly 170 to 205 million euros) more each year on education, after\u00a0the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the B.C. Court of Appeal\u2019s 2015 ruling in favour of the provincial government on 10 November. The decision restores the original decision in the union\u2019s favour by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin. The financial estimate comes from Glen Hansman, President of the B.C. Teachers\u2019 Federation (BCTF), affiliated to Education International\u2019s member organisation the Canadian Teachers\u2019 Federation (CTF), at the end of a union legal battle that began in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday’s win is a massive victory for our rights and vindication of all the years we have spent fighting the B.C. government’s unconstitutional legislation [that] allowed the B.C. government to underfund education\u201d Hansman said. \u201cNow, there is hope that those students coming up through the system will start to see classroom conditions and support levels improve,\u201d and \u201cfor teachers that their teaching conditions will return to workable and fair levels.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Article continued in the right column)<\/p>\n

Click here for this article in French<\/a> or here for this article in Spanish<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question(s) related to this article:\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\nThe right to form and join trade unions, Is it being respected?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Article continued from the left column)<\/p>\n

This is the final step in a very long legal process, in which the BCTF has consistently argued that the governments’ actions in stripping teachers’ collective agreements and right to bargain in 2002, and their further refusal to address the situation, was unconstitutional. Canada’s highest court affirmed teachers’ bargaining rights and agreed with the arguments that the BCTF has been making since then Education Minister Christy Clark first stripped teachers’ collective agreements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKudos to the British Columbia Teachers\u2019 Federation\u00a0(BCTF) for its staunch commitment and determination to see justice prevail,\u201d says CTF\u00a0President Heather\u00a0Smith. \u201cThis decision sends a message to any provincial\/territorial government wishing to strip away teachers\u2019 rights through legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

BCTF pushes for immediate application of changes<\/p>\n

The decision immediately restored clauses deleted from the teachers\u2019 contract by the Liberal government in 2002 dealing with\u00a0class size, the number of special needs students who can be in a class and the number of specialist teachers required in schools.<\/p>\n

Hansman said it could take some time to restore class sizes to pre-2002 levels because the union has lost the equivalent of 3,500 full-time positions over the past 15 years, but highlighted that \u201cthe government should take immediate action to get those provisions back in effect so we can get back to a place where our teachers, schools, and students are properly funded and supported\u201d.<\/p>\n

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…. HUMAN RIGHTS …. An article from Education International After a hard-fought and divisive judicial battle, British Columbia\u2019s educators are celebrating a Supreme Court decision that reaffirms collective bargaining rights and opens the door to the hiring of hundreds of teachers.All governments across Canada will now have to respect bargaining rights and collective agreements. Photo … Continue reading Canada: teachers are victorious as bargaining rights acknowledged by Supreme Court<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,91],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-8756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","category-north-america","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38517,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8756\/revisions\/38517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}