ESL Teachers' Strike Cancels English Classes in Vancouver

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vec-teachers-strike-1.3707963 Aug 04, 2016 "I felt really bad about having to do this [to the students]," said Kim Fissel, interim president of ETEA Local 9 and a teacher at the school for the last four years. "It's a very extreme movement, but unfortunately, it's what we had to do." The school issued a notice to its students on Tuesday informing them of the strike. In place of classes, the school is offering students "a wide variety of leisure and sightseeing activities" in and around Vancouver, as well as four days of free tuition for each day of classes missed due to the strike. Fissel said the activities are being facilitated by school administrative staff, and that some students have been asked to volunteer as well. Fissel said students have been told that the school is negotiating with the teachers, but that no such negotiations have happened since the strike began. "We haven't heard a word from them," Fissel said. "We would definitely rather be teaching, because it's not that fun to be on the street waving at cars and getting honked at." CBC News contacted VEC for comment, but the school was not able to make anyone available by deadline. Fissel said VEC's teachers are seeking a fair living wage comparable to other schools the union represents. She said the starting wage at VEC is $18 an hour for teachers in the adult ESL program, where other schools represented by the union pay $20 or $21 an hour. She said teachers in the school's ESL program for children make even less — between $12 and $14 an hour. Fissel said the median income for VEC teachers is $25,000. The union also wants its teachers to be paid for the extra prep time they put in outside of class time. Fissel said that, on average, VEC teachers put in an additional 10 to 20 per cent of unpaid hours in prep work a week — about three to five hours a week. Fissel said students have been supportive of the teachers, and that many were "horrified" to learn how little their teachers make.