More than 1,000 teachers are expected to descend on the Bill Copeland Sports Centre Monday morning during a province-wide teacher "study session" to review the B.C. Teachers' Federation bargaining package.
"This will update people as to the absolute current state of things as the talks ramp up over the weekend," Burnaby Teachers' Association second vice-president Frank Bonvino told the NOW Friday afternoon. "We anticipate things now obviously are going to ramp up with two weeks left, us giving our strike notice. There's more urgency now, so we're going to see things hopefully moving in the next several hours and days."
The local teachers' union has invited all its nearly 2,000 members to the arena.
"They're going to be rallying, holding signs; there'll be music, that sort of stuff," Bonvino said.
During an in camera segment, members will also discuss the latest from the provincial bargaining table.
B.C. teachers voted last week to escalate their job action to a full-scale walkout starting Tuesday.
Monday's "study session" falls under the teachers' stage-two job action of rotating strikes, which allowed for schools to be closed one day each week.
Until last week, the teachers' federation had been asking for a 9.75-per-cent wage increase over four years, while the B.C. Public School Employers' Association has offered a 7.3-per-cent increase over six years, along with a $1,200 signing bonus if a deal is reached before the end of June.
On Thursday, however, the union announced it was planning to present a revised contract proposal that included lowered wage demands, and on Monday morning Education Minister Peter Fassbender announced BCPSEA had tabled a comprehensive settlement over the weekend that included an improved wage offer and committed to "realistic and flexible solutions to address class composition."
During an interview on CBC radio earlier, however, Fassbender had said it would be an "overstatement" to say the two sides were close to a deal.
