Both sides are losing in the teachers’ dispute. The spin and counter-spin, PR gestures and ad campaigns aren’t moving the parties any closer to a deal.
More and more people - as an informal sampling by The Tyee suggested - are sick of both the BCTF and the government.
Which means the government is going to have to step in and end the strike.
The chances of a negotiated settlement were always tiny. The posturing by both sides and unwillingness or inability even to bargain the key issues has reduced them to about zero.
Each side blames the other.
But - and it is an enormous but - only one side has an actual responsibility to see that kids get an education, and the ability to make that happen.
All the Twitter ads and press conferences blaming the BCTF don’t change that. Governments are supposed to make sure citizens get the services they need (and are paying for).
The BCTF’s foolish two-week June strike was a nuisance (and self-destructive). The loss of the first week of classes was tolerated by many people.
But the government’s apparent willingness to stand by indefinitely while some 580,000 students are deprived of an education is going to generate more and more public anger. Especially as there is no sign the hard line is going to produce a resolution.
Each day the government fails to act now adds to the impression that it doesn’t really consider education a priority, let alone an essential service, as Premier Christy Clark once argued.
There are several options. A legislated end to the strike combined with an imposed settlement or a report from an industrial inquiry commissioner, for example, or an appeal to the Labour Relations Board for a ruling that education is an essential service.
Leaving students and parents adrift during a PR war with teachers - will increasingly be impossible.
And the government’s willingness to do nothing despite the damage to students will increasingly carry a political cost.
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5 comments:
Which side do you trust more? The side that was found by Judge Griffiths to have clearly bargained in bad faith (as she cited in example after example in her summation and rejection of the gov't appeal last year)?
Global BC and CTV have a good job of towing the company line (espoused by their former media crony Clark) with their reporting in trying to make out both sides to blame. There has been stupidity on the teacher's side but I have no doubt of which side I trust more in this dispute, and it's not the one with Factbender and Christie.
Which side do you trust more? The side that was found by Judge Griffiths to have clearly bargained in bad faith (as she cited in example after example in her summation and rejection of the gov't appeal last year)?
Global BC and CTV have done a good job of towing the company line (espoused by their former media crony Clark) with their reporting in trying to make out both sides to blame. There has been stupidity on the teacher's side but I have no doubt of which side I trust more in this dispute, and it's not the one with Factbender and Christie.
Has nothing been learned? The BCTF have been holding the line against the tyrany of a government with an agenda, one they will use any means to fulfill. Legal or illegal, ethical or unethical, their tactics have been used against unions and now beyond unions to the rest of the citizens of BC, the young and the old and the sick. If you're vulnerable, they have no time or money to spend on you. If you are a big corporation or a foreign business the will open their doors and coffers to you. When you talk of two sides, remember that it's them against all of us.
It sounds like you still somehow believe this dysfunctional system, with its collective "bargaining", "negotiated", settlements and "good/bad faith" can be made to work.
Remember PATCO? If these unionists' jobs weren't sanctified and protected by government, they'd be out on their ears and school boards would replace some or all of them with some of the qualified and educated thousands waiting for such a position...
Hang in there, Mr. Fassbender.
Cocoabean = Troll
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