[news] Latin American Educators rally in Support of BC Teachers

[Latin America Connexions]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Latin American Educators rally in Support of BC Teachers:
Demand that Canada Comply with International Law

IDEA Network - October 15, 2005 – Teachers and students throughout 
Latin America are coming to the defense of BC Teachers in the face of 
what they consider an unprecedented attack on teachers’ rights.

On October 14, the same day a British Columbia Supreme court judge cut 
off strike pay for BC teachers and placed an intervenor in the BC 
Teachers’ Federation offices to ensure that no financial or material 
assets are used to support the federation’s strike, educators in Mexico 
and Guatemala held demonstrations outside the Canadian embassies 
demanding that Canada comply with international labour law.

Although the BC government has repeatedly accused BC teachers of 
breaking the law in their weeklong strike, it is actually Premier 
Gordon Campbell’s legislation against teachers and public education 
that has violated international law. In March 2003, a tribunal of the 
United Nations’ International Labour Organization (LIO) ruled that BC 
legislation that declared education an “essential service,” stripped 
teachers of the right to negotiate working/learning conditions and 
arbitrarily imposed a three year contract (bills 18, 27 and 28) 
contravened various articles of international conventions to which 
Canada is a signatory.

The ILO tribunal directed the BC government to rescind or amend the 
offending legislation in order to comply with international law. 
Further, the UN body directed the government to “avoid in future having 
recourse to such legislated settlement, and strongly hopes that the 
next round of negotiations will be held in accordance with the [freedom 
of association] principles mentioned above.” In ignoring this 
directive, the recently legislated Bill 12 that extends the original 
illegal contract by another two years puts the BC government in 
contempt of the ILO rulings.

Teachers organizations in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and 
Ecuador, and OCLAE, a continental federation of high school and 
university student organizations have also submitted letters demanding 
that the BC government comply with international law. Teachers in 
Honduras and Chile say they plan actions at Canadian embassies in the 
coming week. As well, Mexican teachers are offering to set up a BCTF 
website in their country as a way to circumvent the BC court gag order 
prohibiting the BCTF from communicating with their members.

The BCTF, through the Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education 
and the Initiative for Public Education in the Americas (IDEA), has 
played a prominent role in the defense of public education in the 
region. Through these organizations the BCTF has helped to free teacher 
and student leaders jailed for defending public education.

However, it is not just out of gratitude for this solidarity that Latin 
American educators and students are coming to the aid of BC teachers. 
“We must evaluate the strategy of the BC to break the resistance of the 
BCTF teachers,” writes Mariluz Arriaga of the Mexican Section of the 
Trinational Coalition. “Just as with free trade, they have begun with 
Canada and will later try it in our countries. To legislate away the 
right to strike, impose a contract by law, freeze the assets of the 
union and intervene in the communications between the federation and 
its teachers are measures that are much more reactionary than anything 
that has been applied in this country. But the governments of Mexico 
and of other Latin American countries will also try it if it proves 
successful in Canada.”

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For more information, contact Steve Stewart, International Secretary, 
IDEA Network.
Tel: 604 708 1495, ext 115.
E-mail: sstewart at codev.org OR redsepa1 at hotmail.com or