The BC Teachers' Federation released the results of their members' walkout vote last night, with an 87 per cent majority voting yes, although only 79 per cent of the union's 41,000 members participated in this round of voting.

The Labour Relations Board's ruled on Tuesday teachers could legally walkout for an initial three day period, after giving at least two-school-days notice, and then once every five school days after that.

Although the union announced teachers would be voting for a walkout before the ministry of education introduced Bill 22: Education Improvement Act, President Susan Lambert says in a press release from the union that the vote's result is effectively a condemnation of the bill from the province's teachers.

"Teachers are determined and united in their opposition to Bill 22 and to the bullying tactics of a provincial government that has deliberately underfunded public education for a decade," she says. "The results of our province-wide vote are strong evidence of the unity and determination of BCTF members in rejecting this government’s provocative and damaging legislation."

The Act calls for a mediator to settle the the collective bargaining impasse between the teachers' and their employer, the BC Public School Employers' Association, but says the final results must be within the government's net-zero mandate. The BCTF argues that's "sham mediation."

By announcing the results of the teachers' vote last night, the union could have a walkout as early as Monday. They have scheduled another press conference at 8 a.m.*

The ministry of education hasn't publicly reacted to the vote yet, but sent out a press release this morning criticizing the teachers' union for an "inaccurate" portrayal of the details of Bill 22--which has not been approved by the legislature yet.

"It is simply inaccurate for the BCTF to claim that Bill 22 eliminates job security rights, professional autonomy rights and rights to due process. In fact, the bill makes no changes to any of these matters. What it does do is simply get the parties back to the table with a mediator to deal with the issues at hand in a constructive and thoughtful way," Abbott says in the release.

"I am always concerned that the statements by the teachers' union will get in the way of teachers receiving accurate and factual information about the legislation. It is one of the reasons why I hosted a Twitter chat to talk to teachers about the new bill. I enjoyed the opportunity to communicate directly with many teachers via Twitter."

The Twitter conversation, which took place yesterday at noon, was met with varying results, with hundreds of tweets directed at Abbott but only a handful answered. Although some were pleased with the answers they received, the majority of participants expressed frustration and anger with the Bill, with the timing of the discussion during teachers' lunch hour, or with the medium of Twitter itself, which allowed for many questions to be lost in the mix.

Katie Hyslop reports on education and youth issues for The Tyee and The Tyee Solutions Society.

*Originally reported as occurring 8 a.m. Friday morning. The Tyee apologizes for the error.