VICTORIA - That was a clever move by Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown in the teachers' strike.
But it doesn't do anything to head off big problems in the schools.
Brown wisely put off imposing fines on the BC Teachers' Federation, and concentrated instead on making it impossible for the union to keep the strike going.
The union's finances were frozen, and it's barred from spending any money or taking any action to continue the strike - including providing teachers with $50 a day in strike pay. The BCTF is also ordered not to take money from other unions to keep up the battle.
It's a creative, apparently unprecedented approach.
Heavy handed, certainly, but Brown's goal was to force the union to end the illegal strike. Her solution doesn't appear to violate any of the teachers' charter rights, since there's no protection for illegal activity.
Teachers' first reaction will likely be anger. The government has gutted their contracts, failed to take any steps to allow effective bargaining and imposed a new agreement. Now the courts have taken away their right to draw strike pay from funds they contributed to the union over the years.
For many long-serving teachers, the loss of $250 a week in strike pay will be unpleasant, but not critical. They will want to stay out, and perhaps be more determined.
But for others the prospect of days or weeks with no income will erode their resolve, particularly because it's difficult to see any positive outcome to the strike.
And the union will face its own logistical problems if it's denied access to all resources, and have to accept the threat of large fines.
So although BCTF head Jinny Sims said that the union is reviewing its options, it's hard to see what choice is left beyond a return to work within the next week.
But no one should be celebrating . Brown's ruling was effective in achieving her goal of enforcing respect for the law.
For students, and the school system, it simply worsens a bad situation.
Teachers are being forced back into the classrooms feeling abused and betrayed, stripped of the rights that most employees in Canada enjoy. The government has taken almost every opportunity to poke at them with a sharp stick, and made no real effort to address their legitimate concerns.
Yes, the BCTF has shown a destructive inability to compromise. It has treated bargaining as a crusade for justice, instead of recognizing that labour negotiations are about getting the best deal possible under the circumstances.
But the government has been unable to recognize that the relationship with teachers will continue long after this dispute ends.
Labour Minister Mike de Jong had a chance to be conciliatory in responding to the court decision Thursday.
He let it pass, choosing instead to continue the attack, suggesting teachers are on strike because they're afraid of reprisals from the union. That claim isn't supported by independent reports from the picket line and it insults teachers who believe they have been driven to an illegal action by legitimate concerns.
It was a time to reach out, to acknowledge the depth of teachers' frustration, and the government's role. The Liberals have known the bargaining structure was hopelessly flawed, even commissioning a report last year on an alternative.
They did nothing to head off the inevitable conflict. Only on the eve of the strike did they announce another report on the bargaining structure. And their last-minute proposal for an Education Round Table, where teachers, trustees and administrators would talk about class sizes and other issues, was too late and too vague.
Brown's ruling will likely bring an end to the walkout.
But the entire affair has increased teachers' anger and frustration, bad news for the classroom, and a guarantee of rocky times when contract talks start again next year.
Footnote: Brown's ruling appears to bar the union from any activity supporting the strike, from printing more signs to faxing information to members. That raises questions about what will happen if the BCTF - or other unions - support teachers' plans for a major protest in Victoria Monday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
While the order prevents the BCTF from taking money from other unions that would be used to further the strike, there is nothing that prevents the BC FED, for instance, from asking teachers to register with it, and for the BC Fed to directly provide financial assistance to teachers. So long as the BCTF did not facilitate the compilation of such a registry by "using its (the BCTF's) books, records and offices" to set up such a registry, there would be no violation of the order in my opinion.
Unfortunately, the BCTF leadership are political idiots who alienate the people who should be their staunch allies, that is, parents of schoolkids.
I'd support making sure that all ESL students and special-needs students get all the support they need in public schools. I'd write letters to the premier, I'd phone my MLA, I'd sign petitions, I'd turn out at meetings.
But I'm not about to do that, because I don't want the BCTF to think that I'm in support of *them*.
Perhaps Anonymous could send a letter to the Premier encouraging him to improve learning conditions while continuing to despise teachers. One out of two would be a start ...
Maybe the money being saved on salarys during this strike will be enough to pay for extra ESL help and so on? Maybe a strike every year would be a good idea. Or cutting a couple weeks from the school year and not having to pay staff for that time.
But why would anyone send the premier a letter. He ignores anything he hasn't dreamed up himself, and of course deJong knows who keeps him and Bond in the cabinet so they badmouth teachers, the Fed. and anyone who doesn't think the golden era will unfold as gordo wants. Dumb down the upcoming working force so next time they can lower the start wage to 5 dollars.
The reason those teachers are on the line is because the class sizes are getting bigger, more kids with learning diabilities are in those classes, more kids whose first language isn't english, the list goes on,lastly BC teachers get less pay than in a number of other provinces.
You want to give gordo a message, tell him to smarten up.
Only in BC
"If a BCTF member comes to your house, be sure to count your silverware before they leave. Maybe the laws against stealing your stuff don't apply to them, either ..."
It would be wrong to say something like that.
To get back to the substance of Paul's post, he makes a point of the idea that the BCTF is foolishly crusading for justice when the job of a labour union is to get the best deal possible under the circumstances; this is a point that other opinion leaders have also been pushing recently.
Generally speaking it's a good point, along with its companion, that responsible citizens should obey the law. Both are true given honest negotiations and civilized laws.
Unfortunately, those two conditions are lacking in BC just now, as they have been in other situations over the years. Obvious examples are laws that prohibited minority citizens from voting; other examples are numerous.
In the current circumstances, the provincial government has specifically made honest negotiation impossible, first by refusing to give school boards the resources to make negotiation meaningful, and second by enacting legislation that removes the BCTF's only effective means of pressing their case.
In these circumstances, the fundamental negotiating conditions have to be re-established before any "deal", much less the best one available, can be reached. If the government would enable meaningful negotiations, the illegal strike would be unnecessary, and would certainly end, but that does not seem to suit their purposes. It brings to mind the old Malvina Reynolds song, "It Isn't Nice":
"It isn't nice to block the doorway
It isn't nice to go to jail
There are nicer ways to do it
But the nice ways always fail"
It's interesting to note that the government had, until the illegal strike began, utterly refused to talk with the BCTF, claiming that the issue was the responsibility of the school boards. Now that the strike has taken place, their position has changed, and they say they are willing to talk if the teachers go back to class, proving that the nice ways did indeed fail, and that only the illegal action has had any effect.
Even then, though, the teachers seem to be very reasonably suspicious. The "talk" that the government seems to be willing to engage in is, as far as I have heard, only the "education roundtable", which is not a contract negotiation at all. Given the government's past uneasy relationship with the truth, it's hardly surprising that the BCTF insists on seeing the pig before buying the poke.
Oh, hey, I support the party that was trafficking marajuana for party memberships.
Does Dave Basi support the teachers?
As a grade 12 student, i fail to see how locking me out of my school is helping me. Befor the strike action, my teacher said " we are doing this for the students" yet I am the one that is suffering, I want to graduate and pass my provincials, but I can't when I have no one to teach me. I want to go to post secondary but i can't because this illegal strike is standing in my way. Now that classes have resume my teacher said to us " Im not doing any extra work" which make things more diffuclt because i struggle with his class.
Post a Comment