VICTORIA - The government and teachers are now battling for your good opinion.
The BCTF's strike isn't about economic pressure, the key factor in most job action. School districts are saving about $18 million a day because of the walkout.
The only real purpose - apart from venting - is to put political pressure on the government so it will bend on teachers' demands for more money and a say in job conditions like class size.
Parents and the public will soon be angry about the school shutdown. The question is who they will blame.
If it's the government, then political considerations could force some compromise on its part.
If the public holds the BCTF responsible, then the government can safely stand pat, and take a tougher line in whatever new system of bargaining it imposes for the talks starting in the spring.
That means public opinion should be the critical factor for the union as it decides what to do about the Supreme Court ruling that the strike is illegal.
Justice Brenda Brown found that everyone in society has to obey court orders, or "anarchy cannot be far behind." But she put off imposing penalties until Thursday, a useful wait to allow tempers to cool. "I am hopeful that teachers are responsible citizens and they will pay attention to my ruling," Brown found.
In the meantime teachers and government should both pay attention to the only serious public opinion poll on the dispute so far available.
The Mustel Group - the most accurate of the pollsters in assessing the last election campaign - found that teachers have easily been winning the battle for public opinion.
Two out of three of those surveyed with a view on the dispute supported the teachers, the poll found.
The public is also not buying the government's argument that teachers have to take a pay freeze like other public sector employees. More than two-thirds of those with an opinion backed the teachers' proposal for a 15-per-cent increase over the government's demand for a freeze. (That should make the government edgy as it heads into new talks with the rest of its unions. The public appears to believe that big surpluses mean the government can afford raises.)
And the teachers' focus on class size has found a receptive audience. About 85 per cent of those with an opinion say class size affects children's education. Both the government and teachers say they care about class size, but since the government's actions have resulted in larger classes teachers own the issue.
All good news for the union.
But then things turn in the government's favour. British Columbians were basically split on whether they supported or opposed the teachers' strike plan. (The poll, based in interviews with 315 adults in the Lower Mainland, was taken the day before the strike started.)
And about two-thirds of respondents said they wouldn't support the teachers' strike once legislation made it illegal.
That means the dispute is at a crossroads. Public opinion is the only real weapon teachers have. Up to this point, they have won that battle. The government knows the public is on the teachers' side, and that has to temper its response.
But that could swing quickly if the union persists in an illegal strike.
At this point a long strike can't win anything for the teachers. Staying out will not bring a raise, or class size negotiations.
Instead, public support will be eroded, and the government will face less pressure to take a fairer approach to the union's issues in the new bargaining model.
Brown has given both sides until Thursday to come up with the least damaging end to the job action.
The smart thing - for union and government - is to look for a solution that shows some willingness to compromise.
Failing that, the union has to recognize the critical long-term importance of public support. A continued strike in defiance of the law would do lasting damage to its cause.
Footnote: Both political parties are likely relieved that the legislature is shut down this week for a Thanksgiving break. NDP leader Carole James - after some prodding - said teachers should obey the law. But the issue is problematic for the New Democrats as well as the Liberals.
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8 comments:
Without the support of a general strike, the teachers really have no choice but to return to work. The BCTF will be crushed by penalties and teachers and students will be the losers.
The BCTF should use the money it would otherwise pay in penalties to run sharp short TV ads about the deteriorating conditions in BC classrooms. They should be exposing the obvious effort by the BC neoconliberals to privatize our public education system by starving it, while boosting funds to the private system. Didn't they just fully fund special needs in the private system?
Why is it someone always brings up talk of a general strike. it simply scares most everyone because as the judge says. Anarchy is not far behind. and that's what a Genrals strike is all about.
Folks will support one side or the other but if a general strike came along , not many would support it.
I recall Solidarity, and the Solidarity Coalition. Some groups were quite large but that's not what they were pushing for.They wannted a voice and some changes. It was usually the small groups that were doing the talking about general strike.
Canada has had general strikes before. The fed loved it , brought in the private security guys,like Pinkertons, the RCMP and shot a bunch of people just trying to get a chance to make a basic living.
Smarter people can negotiate just about anything. Just give them a voice at the table, something the teachers don't have at this time.
They need that place at the table. Jim Sinclair has said so a number of times, so let's get down to work. That way neither side wins all the marbles but some things get done. Fineing a union great amount of money simply makes things worse.
Yes they did, though there are just 135 special nees children the public school system.The complexity of teaching cannot be reduced to testing to see who are the best teachers though that seems to be the neoliberal push for vouchers etc.and privitisation.private companies cannot be trusted to have the fiduciary trust of educating our kids, because they are beholden to profits and the all mightry investor, not education, as well as maintaining privilege.
The most interesting thing about this brouhaha is how little the dialogue has changed in the past 40 years.
It tends toward reinforcing my thought that BC really does have a backward, immature political culture incapable of rising above it's history.
None of the parties to this have shown the least indication that they are committed to anything other than a continuation of the provincial tradition of brinksmanship.
It would be such a pleasing change if there were adults in charge of something in this benighted province.
I found your blog again!
I completely agree with you here! Public opinion is what will make or break this thing.
You said, The smart thing - for union and government - is to look for a solution that shows some willingness to compromise.
I couldn't agree more. You told me that you have nagging doubts that the union would take any concession. I don't really know one way or another, but what teachers want is simply a chance to negotiate, which we havne't been getting. No no and no is not negotiations.
I was thinking today (and you'll have to pardon the teaching analogy) that this strike or political protest, or whatever you want to call it is like a teacher who says to a defiant student "OK, you've got a five minute detention," and then keeps adding five minutes every time the student refuses to do what he or she is asked. The student is stubborn and strong willed, and the teacher can't back down because he's set up this consequence and he can't let this behaviour continue. Neither teacher nor student will bend, and eventually the student ends up with a completely unrealistic detention. Both parites are frustrated and discouraged, and the original problem of the student's behaviour is still not dealt with.
That's what I see happening in this labour dispute. Teachers say they won't go back till the government talks and they get a negotiated settlement. The government won't talk till teachers are back at work.
The issue of working conditions and salary are so secondary right now. It's a defiant student and an unbending teacher at loggerheards with eachother (and no, the teacher and student are not necessarily representatives of the parites involved in this dispute).
For this to go anywhere, the two groups jsut haveto sit down and TALK.
When the laws are specifically designed to exclude one from meaningful negotiation, I think a good case can be made for civil disobediance. Whether or not teachers will be able to do this or not, one thing is clear; sooner or later someone will have to, or we will be left with near tyranny - sooner or later - as regards any worker/employee in the public or private sector.
One other note pertaining to our educational system: one can almost imagine a deliberate underfunding and undermining of it, in order to usher in more privatized versions of education. Exactly as has been done with our medical services, I might add.
I support the teachers strike. I worked in healthcare when we had our strike. What the public does not understand is that what we and the teachers were on strike for was the betterment of the treatment of our weakest most vulnerable population. Seniors and kids. The gov't just passes laws to make everything the unions try to do, that is our right as a "liberal" province to voice our opinions and help make changes for the better, illegal. Our communistic gov't is NOT allowing that to happen. Campbell lies, steals, does whatever he can to get his way and more of our money in his pocket. The HEU had a 13% wage cut at the end of that strike and guess what! All the administrators of all the govt appointed healthboards in BC got a 13% raise within a week of the end out the strike! I give the teachers all the credit for having the guts to stand up to this tyranical gov't and do what healthcare obviously did not have the guts to do. I went from working in a job in healthcare I had to go to school for and get a diploma, to driving a truck! As now my former job is being given to untrained minimun wage people that have no clue how to do what is required in my former profession, but that is how little our gov't cares for our population.
So I say go for the general strike.
I for one have had enough. As a teacher in the BC public school system I have known nothing but attack after attack after attack from all the provincial governments that have taken their turn at being in power. Mind you this has been the worst so far. I'm already looking to go somewhere else. Sadly, I can see thousands of other teachers leaving as well. Good luck at finding better and cheaper replacement teachers. Who the fuck would ever want to come to BC to teach?
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