BC General Strike 2005: Burnaby Edition

As unions across British Columbia stand in solidarity with the BCTF by staging walkouts across the province, beginning yesterday with the walkout in Victoria that led to a few thousand gathering in the rain on the lawn of the Legislature, the question of how this will impact Burnaby must be asked. The answer is that the job action (or wildcat general strike - depending on your point of view) will come to Burnaby this Friday.

Following up on "Solidarity Monday" will be a series of regional protests that will culminate in the Lower Mainland on Friday. Among workplaces subject to the action will be Simon Fraser University. The Teaching Support Staff Union, which employs teaching assistants, sessional instructors, and lab technicians, voted in favour of joining the extreme leftist opposition to the BC Liberal provincial government.

The union passed a motion that included the resolutions, "Be it resolved that the TSSU give its unqualified support to the BCTF in their struggle for a fairly negotiated collective agreement; and Be it further resolved that in solidarity with other campus unions, the TSSU participate in any wider protest actions up to and including withholding services with regards to the BCTF in their struggle for a fairly negotiated collective agreement." In notes attached to an e-mail accompanying the union's announcement encouraging people to rally in protest or picket with teachers at schools on Friday was the following line, "As this is a political protest, the decision to participate is an individual one and the TSSU will not take any disciplinary action against members who choose to come to work." At least that gives the economics and business instructors struggling with going against the conscience, and wallets, an option.