Stuck In The Middle With You

Well, starting on Monday my wife, myself and the teachers of British Columbia will be getting 3 days off without pay.  Legally, it's called a strike.  Since being declared an essential service in 2005, education strikes have been managed by the Labour Relations Board (LRB).  This time around the LRB has told the teachers that they are allowed to strike for three consecutive days and then one day a week.  However, legislation making even our legal strike illegal will have been passed by the end of next week.  So, how did this happen.

On one side we have the British Columbia Teacher's Federation (BCTF).  This is as union that has  been unable to negotiate a contract without job action since 1991.  The union is extremely militant and vociferous in it's dislike of the government.  The BCTF is an angry union.  I have only been in BC for 5 years and but the BCTF has been angry the whole time and from what I hear, they were all born angry.  The union believes that teachers don't get paid enough.  We rank anywhere from 6th to 9th in the nation depending on what side you believe.  However, it is indisputable that BC is one of the most expensive places in Canada to live.  The union also wants more money for smaller classes and more help for special needs kids that seem to be piling up in those classrooms.  The union also wants improvements in other benefits.  Finally, the union won an important court case that declared a law passed by the current government a decade ago unconstitutional for stripping teachers' right to negotiate class size and composition as part of a collective agreement.  The union was pretty sure they should have all of this stuff because it was the right thing to do.

On the other side is the Liberal government.  The Liberals are actually a coalition of right of centre liberals and conservatives.  The rest of the country would not really recognize them as Liberals at all.  The government spent money like a drunken sailor during the "Great Recession" after having lowered taxes by a significant amount in the previous years.  Now the government is crying poor and telling all government employees that they cannot have a raise unless the money is found elsewhere in the contract through concessions.  This is the so called "Net Zero" mandate.  You can already see where this is heading.  The government has also flat-lined the spending on education over the next year resulting in a shortfall for school districts and obviously no money for more help for special kids or smaller classes.  The bottom line is that the Liberals have lowered taxes to a point where they can no longer operate the government at a sufficient level and they have decided that it's the public servants fault.

The two sides negotiated for almost a year and have got nowhere.  NOTHING was agreed upon.  No surprise when one side is adamantly demanding more money and the other side is just as adamantly claiming that there isn't any.  The government came to the table with no money and a list of concessions they would like.  Now, I may be wrong, but I remember from my law school classes that a negotiation happens when you have something to give the other party in exchange for something from them.  The union was unable to get past the no raise or no new money hurdle.

So now the government has decided that a negotiated agreement cannot be reached (there has been no  mediation or arbitration) so they have moved straight to legislation.  The government decided that there would be a mediator appointed by the government and on a narrow scope also decided by the government.  If any teachers decide to strike illegally (it happens every time), the union would be subject to a $1.3 million fine and individual teachers would be fined $475 each day.  A pretty heavy hand.  So, the union has decided to strike even though it will do nothing but cost members 3 days pay and make the public angry.

In short the union has not been pragmatic in just dealing around the net zero (like most other public service unions to this point) and dealing with the rest.  The union may lose a lot more than money as a result of their moral outrage.  Just a note, but Safeway doesn't take moral outrage at the register.  And the government that was elected to protect and represent me has decided to strip my legal rights as a citizen of the province.  I am really disappointed and increasingly angry that MY government and MLA have taken it upon themselves to play the dictator.  You would expect to find this kind of law in a banana republic somewhere, not in Canada.

In short, everyone sucks right now.