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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