VICTORIA, British Columbia, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Thousands of British Columbia school teachers walked off the job Monday, taking to the streets to protest legislation that imposes a three-year contract on them.
The protests came hours after the Legislature passed the Education Services Collective Agreement Act late Sunday, imposing a contract that will give some 46,000 public school teachers a 7.5 percent pay hike over three years. The teachers were seeking 18 percent, down from 22 percent they originally demanded.
The walkout kept nearly 600,000 students from their classes in about 40 communities. Huge crowds showed up for rallies in Vancouver and outside the Legislature building in Victoria, the provincial capital, waving banners and chanting slogans against the right-of-center government.
Provincial Premier Gordon Campbell said the walkout was illegal and was in defiance of the latest legislation. "The law has to be enforced," he said, adding that striking teachers would face fines
The British Columbia Teachers Federation said the walkout was legal. The teachers had given notice of the strike a week ago. The provincial labor relations board ruled on Sunday night, minutes before the new legislation was passed, that the teachers may hold a one-day walkout this week.
David Chudnovsky, a spokesman for the union, said the teachers are angry and "need to express their anger." The new legislation would "sacrifice the quality of education for our students," he said. The new legislation removed from the teachers' contract limits that had been set earlier on class sizes and teachers' workloads.
The teachers said the limit on the size of classes was what put Canada in sixth place in the world in terms of quality of education, and the latest legislation was a step backward.
Some of the striking teachers said they wouldn't volunteer to work with school sports teams or help voluntarily with other extracurricular activities. They accused Campbell of following a pattern set by Ontario Premier Mike Harris and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, both of whom head right-of-center Progressive Conservative governments in their respective provinces.
The row with the teachers comes days after Campbell announced he intends to slash $1.2 billion ($1.9 billion Canadian) from the government's spending by 2005. Meanwhile, he has cut income and corporate taxes by $930 million ($1.5 billion Canadian), a move that invited attack from New Democratic Party leader Joy MacPhail, who said he "wanted to give a tax break to his corporate backers."
Campbell, for his part, accused the left-of-center NDP of creating a financial mess when it was in power over the past decade, and said he intended to take the province out of it.
His government also has passed legislation that allows it to reopen contracts already signed earlier with health care workers -- setting the stage for protests and legal battles with unions in that sector.
