New Westminster Teachers’ Strike 1921
This booklet explains the reasons for New Westminster teachers’ strike in 1921, its impact on students, parents and schools, the outcome and its relevance to the history of bargaining rights for teachers province-wide.
In 1920, the president of the New Westminster Teachers’ Association (NWTA), told the school board its members’ salaries were falling behind other districts. He stated teachers wanted a substantial pay hike, to be negotiated on an incremental salary grid, not individually.
Trustees stalled in responding to the salary demand. Finally on February 8, 1921 the board countered with a wage offer far below the NWTA proposal and refused to negotiate further. The teachers responded by requesting salary issues be resolved through arbitration. The trustees remained inflexible.
Teachers lost their patience and on February 12 the association sent a written ultimatum. “Unless the Board meets the executive of the Association and makes arrangements mutually satisfactory to both parties with regard to salaries for this year,” the message read, ”the teachers will not be in school on Monday.”
When students made their way to school on the morning of February 14, they were met by classrooms without teachers. Only two of 86 teachers had shown up for work. Students from one high school formed a parade and headed downtown, announcing they were on a sympathy strike.“We have gone out of our way to be liberal,” the board chair explained to the newspaper. The teachers disagreed, telling the newspaper the board failed to consider their salary proposal and refused to submit the issue to arbitration.
At an emergency meeting later that Monday, school board trustees voted in favour of delivering an ultimatum. The secretary was instructed to mail each teacher a letter advising teachers they would be considered to have resigned their positions unless they reported to work.
Public pressure had an impact and the board agreed to arbitration which dragged on throughout 1921. Teachers were awarded increases, but trustees did not comply with payment. The school board election in January of the following year ushered in a majority of trustees sympathetic to teachers. The full award was honoured.
The five-day teacher walk out in 1921, heartened by strike donations from locals across BC and Canada, led to improvements to salaries over the ensuing years and was an important step on the road to full collective bargaining rights for teachers.
This booklet was authored by Janet Nicol and published in 2017 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the BC Teachers’ Federation and the installation of a heritage plaque recognizing this event.