But that militancy, which has been muted for the last several years, is about to be tested as the union's 38,000 members enter the second week of an illegal strike over wages and learning conditions in the classroom.
On Monday, the B.C. Federation of Labour is expecting thousands of unionized public sector workers to take part in a two-hour march and rally, ending at the legislature in Victoria.
The escalating dispute began with the B.C. government imposing a contract on teachers through legislation that contained no wage increase and prevented them from negotiating class size.
The B.C. Labour Relations Board then ruled that the teachers' strike was illegal and that ruling was backed by the B.C. Supreme Court.
Still, the teachers remained off the job even after the supreme court judge froze the union's assets and prevented members from receiving their $50 a day strike pay.
The walkout has kept about 600,000 public school students from kindergarten to Grade 12 out of school.
Some other powerful unions, notably the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union and the Hospital Employees Union, didn't take job action to the same extent as the teachers before agreeing to contracts that either froze or chopped wages while guaranteeing job security.
Dozens of agreements with public sector unions have in fact been reached in the past three years with the B.C. government that have included the wage freeze.
The teachers' federation is one of the last public sector unions not to agree to a minimum of two years without a salary boost.
The rally Monday seems certain to demonstrate how much support teachers have from the many other unions that have been invited to take part.
"They (other unions) are saying all the right things but they are not really making any firm commitments," says Ken Thornicroft, a labour relations specialist and business professor at the University of Victoria.
"You have to show solidarity and I think there is a certain amount of pent-up resentment in general against the government and this is another opportunity to express that."
Thornicroft suggests the teachers are putting the provincial government and other public sector unions in a difficult position with their resolve.
"The teachers are not singled out for special treatment in regard to the freeze. People may not like the freeze but many, many unions have had to swallow that," he said.
"The teachers aren't being rolled back, which is what happened with the Hospital Employees Union. They are not terribly paid and their working conditions are not terrible although they do have legitimate issues."
Thornicroft said there may be a feeling among other public sector unions of "this is not the time to fight, this is not the issue to fight on."
Judy Darcy, spokeswoman for the HEU and a longtime labour activist, disagreed with the notion that the teachers haven't been getting support from the other unions.
"We are watching this with great alarm because we have collective agreements expiring for the majority of the public sector next March," she said.
"We think there is a really horrible signal being sent about whether free collective bargaining will ever exist in the public sector in B.C."
Darcy said she has not heard any HEU members complain about teachers' wage demands.
"What I hear HEU members saying is they're doing the same to the teachers as they did to us by not allowing them to bargain."
George Heyman, president of the government employees union, bristled at the suggestion his members have been less than supportive of teachers.
"Many BCGEU members have been affected by the teachers' protest lines and have been honouring those lines, staying away from work and joining teachers on the line," said Heyman.
He pointed out that some HEU and BCGEU members working in health-care facilities had wage rollbacks legislated on them, while other union members negotiated job security in return for wage freezes.
"We negotiated agreements that worked for us. Every set of bargaining is different and I have no regrets."
Thornicroft suggests it will take more than a two-hour rally Monday in Victoria to sway the government.
"I think the government has gone as far as they're prepared to go at this point and they're going to let the court do its work."
The Canadian Press, 2005
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