Fassbender confirms teacher lockout lifted, asks again for suspended strike

CTV Vancouver: Public barbs not solving dispute The fact that the B.C. government and teachers are publicly bickering about minutiae is a bad sign for parents, a labour expert says.

B.C. teachers were once again asked to suspend their strike Thursday after Education Minister Peter Fassbender confirmed the lockout against them had been lifted.

Fassbender said school could reopen within two days if the B.C. Teachers’ Federation agrees to send members back to work.

“Even though we are not yet in mediation, we need to get students back in the classroom and teachers back to work,” he said.

The announcement cleared up apparent confusion between the two sides in the dispute that emerged Wednesday when Premier Christy Clark told a press conference the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association’s lockout was over.

BCTF president Jim Iker said the union had received no official notice that was the case.

Following Fassbender’s announcement, the BCTF tweeted that the fastest way to get schools open is for the government to “enter full mediation, and negotiate a fair deal.”

The union also called on the government to drop Proposal E80, a clause regarding the issues of class size and composition, from negotiations.

The BCTF alleges Proposal E80 would effectively negate a pair of court victories won by teachers, each of which found the BC Liberals had illegally stripped them of collective bargaining rights on those issues in 2002.