Teachers at an international school in Metchosin have overwhelming voted in favour of job action, citing stagnating wages and stalled talks around their first collective agreement.
The Professional Employees Association, which represents 26 teachers at Pearson College, said 96 per cent of its members voted in favour of job action last week.
PEA labour relations officer and lead negotiator Brett Harper said the union will be in a position to issue 72-hour strike notice pending the outcome of mediation that is expected in late October.
“We are really hopeful that we can get a deal without having to take or consider job action,” he said.
Teachers at Pearson College, which has 200 students, took a pay cut at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic — which was later restored — and have seen several consecutive years of no wage increases, Harper said.
“Faculty really stepped up during the pandemic times with a wage cut,” he said. “Their asks are quite reasonable and they’re just trying to catch up from a couple of really challenging years.”
Pearson teachers have been in the process of negotiating their first collective agreement with the college since November 2023, after voting to join PEA earlier that year.
PEA said teaching faculty at Pearson College make less than their counterparts at B.C. public and independent schools.
For example, Harper said a Pearson teacher with a master’s degree would start at $65,000 a year compared to $71,000 for the same teacher in the Sooke School District.
The maximum annual wage cap is also about $5,000 lower at Pearson, he said.
Although it varies by school district, B.C. teachers in the public school system saw annual wage increases of 3.25 per cent in 2022, up to 7.75 per cent in 2023, and up to a 3.11 per cent this year.
Harper said Pearson teachers are also looking to include severance provisions and professional development opportunities in their collective agreement.
In a statement provided to the Times 91原创, the college said it is looking to negotiate in good faith and come up with a solution that supports both the faculty and the institution’s future sustainability.
The school is working on contingency plans should a strike be called after the mediation process finishes at the end of October, the statement said.
According to its latest publicly available financial statements, Pearson College’s total revenue in 2023 was around $10.9 million.
A quarter of that came from fundraising, while another quarter came from tuition and application fees.
Government grants made up four per cent of total revenue.
The college’s reported expenses last year were around $12.3 million.
The college, which was founded as Lester B. Pearson United World College of the 91原创 in 1974, marks the 50th anniversary of the arrival of its first 100 students on Wednesday.
Alumni events are being held across the world in Montreal, London, New York and India during this school year to mark the occasion.
The college, which sits on a 75-acre campus next to Pedder Bay, is part of the United World Colleges international school network, which has 18 schools on four continents.
The network’s president is currently the queen dowager of Jordan, Noor Al Hussein.
As of 2023, Pearson College had an endowment fund worth about $46.7 million.
The college counts 15 Rhodes Scholars and close to 200 current university professors among its alumni ranks.
