By The Canadian Press

Teachers to look for better deal on wages and class size

Mar 19, 2018 | 5:38 AM

VANCOUVER — The union representing British Columbia teachers is looking to boost salaries and update class size and composition standards, when their contract negotiations open later this year.
    B-C Teachers’ Federation president Glen Hansman told a crowd at the union’s annual general meeting last night that B-C offers one of the lowest starting salaries in the country, behind only Quebec, as he spoke about priorities for the year ahead.
    That makes it hard to attract new teachers — especially when there’s an affordability crisis in cities like Vancouver.
    Hansman says the union won’t officially set its bargaining objectives until the fall, but it’s safe to say that class size and composition will also be a priority when the public-sector contracts expire in June of next year.
    He says that although the union won a Supreme Court of Canada battle to restore class size and composition standards in November 2016, those standards are almost a quarter of a century old.
    Education Minister Rob Fleming noted earlier this month that a record 35-hundred teaching positions were filled last year.
  
    (The Canadian Press)