Burnaby’s teaching community has lost a longtime social activist who was known for being on the picket line well into her 90s.
Betty Griffin, a retired elementary school teacher, died on May 1 at the age of 94.
She began teaching when she was 34, when her two stepchildren started school. But because women hadn’t yet won the right to maternity leave, she had to quit four years later when she became pregnant.
Griffin was eventually rehired, but her previous teaching years didn’t count towards her seniority. She ended up joining the local union’s negotiating team, and, shortly after, Burnaby became the first local in the province to win maternity leave.
Griffin also spent a decade pushing for teachers’ pensions to be indexed to the cost of living – something they won in 1980.
“There were a lot of people around the province who were very concerned, and Betty was one of them. They were concerned about how the pensions were low for people who had retired quite a number of years ago,” recalls Patti Jukes, past president of the Burnaby Teachers’ Association (BTA) and current treasurer.
“Young teachers, like myself, were made aware that some of the elderly women who were elementary teachers were living on very, very low pension income because their income was low when they were teaching. They were barely managing. It was a horrendous situation,” she says.
In the 1970s, Griffin helped implement a locally run plan for Burnaby teachers who ran out of sick leave.
“These would be our members who were the sickest, most vulnerable people,” says Jukes. “When they ran out of sick leave, basically, there was nothing for them.”
The plan was financially supported by the union and by the Burnaby school board.
“It was innovative because there weren’t those kinds of things around then. She was a person who was thinking about these kinds of things. She was ... a person who really wanted to make social change and make things better for others,” adds Jukes.
Griffin, who served as BTA president and was part of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation’s negotiating committee for 14 years, helped establish a collective agreement for Burnaby teachers before there was even a union.
“It’s very significant to have that learning and working conditions contract because it had things in it like improve the class size and composition for students. It was very significant – the Burnaby school board agreed to it. Of course, they had a lot of pressure on them from us,” Jukes says with a laugh.
Griffin is predeceased by her husband Harold and will be missed by her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
A celebration of life will take place this summer. Details will be announced in June. Visit dignitymemorial.ca, under Obituaries, for updates.
In lieu of flowers, people are asked to honour what she believed in most – sign a petition, speak up for someone, champion a cause and be the voice Griffin no longer has.
