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The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (bctf), representing all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the province, is one of the largest and most powerful unions in British Columbia. bctf has always sought formal rights to full-scope collective bargaining, and unrestricted access to striking at the school board level. It has employed a sustained, sophisticated series of strategies to achieve these objectives, quickly adapting to changing political and legal environments. The bctf has had significant success in advancing its labour relations agenda, establishing a different trajectory for teachers than for most public sector workers in Canada. This article maps bctf's labour relations strategies and agenda against the backdrop of the political and legal environments, from bctf's inception to present-day. It argues that, as a result of these factors, BC teachers have experienced a different labour relations history than most public sector workers. Drawing on and adapting Rose's (2004) eras of public sector labour relations, this article identifies the following eras of BC teacher labour relations: an era of exclusion (to 1982); resistance and revitalization (1982-86); expansion (1987-93); reform (1994); reprieve (1994-2001); restraint and consolidation (2002-2007); and reaching an era of realignment beginning in 2007.

This research project reviews and evaluates the academic literature relating to obtaining and maintaining collective bargaining rights under the OLRA. Research indicates that procedural changes to representation processes including the mandatory representation vote significantly reduced the likelihood of certification, and that these effects were concentrated in more vulnerable units. This may partly be due to greater opportunity for delay and employer resistance under vote procedure compared to under card-based certification. The research also indicates that delay has significant effects on certification outcomes, as do ULP complaints and employer resistance tactics. ULPs have negative long-term effects, and are associated with difficulties in bargaining and early decertification. Research also suggests that employer resistance, including ULPs, is common and often intentional. Little research on decertification exists, but offers some indication that employer actions contribute to decertification, and that decertification is concentrated in smaller, low-skill, low bargaining power units.

Examines labor relations between the state (federal and provincial governments) and public sector workers since the 1960s, including interventions into collective bargaining through wage control legislation, wage control policies, back-to-work legislation, and emergency no-strike legislation. Concludes that while Canadian governments have generally accepted the industrial relations system, they have not accepted the outcomes of bargaining. In addition, the authors conclude that there is little evidence to support the thesis of Wellington and Winters (1969) that public sector labor unions use their power to threaten democracy by settling agreements that are contrary to the mandate and best interests of the electorate.

In this paper the authors provide a review and critique of existing legal standards and methods, at common law and under employment standards legis- lation, for determining the length of notice to which employees are entitled as a result of without-cause termination. They argue that, at common law, the factors relied on to determine the amount of termination notice contribute to systemic bias and power imbalances between employers and employees, while fostering the illusion of individualized assessment. As well, the regime is inaccessible to low- and middle-income employees due to the costs of litigation. Minimum statutory notice in Ontario, which relies solely on the factor of length of service, is heavily discounted in relation to the common law, and suffers from poor enforcement and widespread non-compliance. In light of the shortcomings of the common law and statutory regimes, the authors conclude that there is a clear need for reform. While other proposals for reform have been advanced, the authors contend that they focus too heavily on length of service, are likely to perpetuate the problems associated with the existing systems, and fail to comprehensively take into account the primary purpose of notice - to provide employees with a "cushion" between termination and re-employment. The auth- ors then set out their proposal for a "Middle Course" approach to determining length of notice, which would be based on a series of objective factors related to the estimated time needed by a dismissed employee to obtain re-employment. It would be implemented by replacing the existing formula under employment standards legislation with one that would enable notice entitlements to be deter- mined in a more predictable, rational and equitable fashion.

The nature of work has undergone tremendous change in recent decades, and these changes have been well documented and widely debated. Similarly, the adequacy of regulation and institutions of work to operate in the face of these transformations has been questioned. Much attention has been devoted to the condition of this decline. Work and workplaces have been reorganized (in one memorable phrase, "fissured"),' increased intermediation in the traditional employment relationship has made it more difficult to identify the "real employer," and fewer "employees" exist, as precarious work and contracting-out of work has grown. These workers are more difficult to organize, and labour and employment relations regulatory schemes have failed to respond robustly or effectively to these changed conditions. Equal attention has been paid to the causes of the decline in union density: the "globalization of production" through technological and communications innovations, the offshoring of work (even work previously thought to be impervious to this trend), the expansion of the financial sector and the proliferation of its meth- ods and values into the productive or "real" economy (a process called financialization), the privatization of formerly public goods and services, and the reorganization of firms to (re)focus on "core competencies" and contract out peripheral functions. Even if all of these possible causes were overcome, workers' attitudes toward traditional organizations such as unions and even toward workers' identities as such have also changed profoundly, and organizing worker voice and collective bargaining has become more challenging.

[The author] traces the development of teacher bargaining structures in BC through three distinct historical periods. ...[C]oncludes that, by any measure, K-12 teacher collective bargaining has not been a success. --Editors' introduction

[P]rovides an overview and comparative discussion of the basic legal frameworks regulating K-12 teacher bargaining. --Editors' introduction

Taking an inter-provincial comparative approach, Dynamic Negotiations identifies potential avenues of reform. Academic and legal experts describe and analyse the history, current structure, and functioning of bargaining in public elementary and secondary schools in six key jurisdictions - Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland - representing a spectrum of approaches. This is a vital area of public policy that is much discussed but not well enough understood. The volume is a valuable resource for policy-makers, academics, and practitioners in education and labour relations. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction: Labour Relations in Primary and Secondary Canadian Education / Sara Slinn and Arthur Sweetman -- Crosscurrents: Comparative Review of Elementary and Secondary Teacher Collective Bargaining Structures in Canada / Karen Schucher and Sara Slinn -- The Great Divide: School Politics and Labour Relations in British Columbia before and after 1972 / Thomas Fleming -- Conflict without Compromise: The Case of Public Sector Teacher Bargaining in British Columbia / Sara Slinn -- Oil and Ideology: The Transformation of K-12 Bargaining in Alberta / Kelly Williams-Whitt -- Teacher Collective Bargaining in Manitoba / Valerie J. Matthews Lemieux -- The Evolution of Teacher Bargaining in Ontario / Joseph B. Rose -- Collective Bargaining for Teachers in Ontario: Central Power, Local Responsibility / Elizabeth Shilton -- The Centralization of Collective Bargaining in Ontario's Public Education Sector and the Need to Balance Stakeholder Interests / Brendan Sweeney, Susan McWilliams, and Robert Hickey -- Labour Relations in the Quebec K-11 Education Sector: Labour Regulation under Centralization / Jean-Noël Grenier and Mustapha Bettache -- K-12 Teacher Collective Bargaining in Newfoundland and Labrador / Travor C. Brown.

[The author] delves into the influence on teacher labour relations of the decades-long struggle for control of public education in British Columbia. The chapter identifies key developments in the pre- and post-1972 periods and their effects. --Editor's introduction

[E]xamines the structure and functioning of teacher bargaining under both the Conservative government (1997-2001) and the subseuqent Liberal government, including the latter's innovative and informal introduction of centralizaiton, and the effects of these approahces on fostering or impeding bargaining. --Editors' introduction

[M]aps the development of K-12 teacher bargaining, which has been strongly influenced by a series of provincial government social re-enginereering efforts that have shaped the province as a whole. ...[C]oncludes that the system will likely move toward a two-tiered bargaining structure. --Editors' introduction

[The author] traces the evolution of teacher collective bargaining from its pre-collective bargaining roots, through several distinct stages, including the 1997-2001 restructure of the bargaining system as well as the current era in which the provincial government ha staken a more conciliatory, two-tier approach to negotiations. ...[C]oncludes that a consistent them throughout this history is the struggle about the issue of control over education policy and, in particular, teachers' voices in the bargaining workload. --Editors' introduction

[E]xamines the collective bargaining system for teachers employed in the kindergarten to grade 12 public school system in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ...[Concludes that the] long tradition of centralized labour relations, reinforced by legislation that preserves the centralized system, appears to serve the parties well. --Editor's introduction.

[E]xplains the unique dual statutory model regulating teacher employment in Manitoba and key junctures in the development of this model, and the organization of the education system in a highly politicized context. ...[C]oncludes by offering some observations on the effectiveness of the collective bargaining structure of kindergarten to Grade 12 public school teachers in Manitoba as well as possible impacts on future bargaining.

[D]escribes the current system of collective bargaining and labour relations in this sector. The underlying theme is that of progressive centralization...at the provincial level. ...[D]iscusses the historical evolution of the collective bargaining regime. ...[C]onsiders the outcomes of collective bargaining in terms of process, conflict, and working conditions.

Employing data from interviews with education sector stakeholders, this study assess the degree to which the more centralized bargaining structure that existed during teacher negotiations in 2005 and 2008 addressed and balanced stakeholders' interests. --Editors' introduction