October 16, 2005

The End "Game" in the Teachers' Strike

Political cartoons frequently say more in one image than thousands of words can express. During the first full week of the teacher's strike, Krieger, in the Vancouver Province, portrayed both Premier Campbell and BCTF President Jenny Sims in a room where they had painted themselves into corners. The situation has deteriorated since that "cartoon".

Every industrial dispute eventually ends; the question is how. Responsible leaders need to find an exit strategy from the standoff that is escalating in BC. The evidence to date suggests that neither side is capable of being reasonable, so it is all the more important that third parties help the government and the BCTF find a way out of their deadlock.

In recent years both the Hospital Employees' Union and the BC Ferry Workers took the province to the brink of crisis similar to what the BCTF dispute is now doing. In both cases, senior labour leaders helped the parties by mediating a resolution. Why can't that be done in the case of the teachers' strike?

Part of the answer may be that the government sees long term political benefit in a fight with the teachers by linking the BCTF and the NDP. Another part of the answer may be that the BCTF has rarely succeeded in negotiating an agreement. Prior to 1988, negotiations were school board by school board with no right to strike. If settlements weren't reached by a predetermined date, binding arbitration kicked in; the school boards had control over local school property taxes. Between 1988 and 1993, several school districts experienced teacher strikes. In 1993 the Harcourt government legislated an end to the strike in Vancouver, and in 1994 legislated province-wide bargaining to replace local bargaining. No settlement has been negotiated since, although in 1998 it was the employers that had to be forced to ratify an agreement by way of legislative intervention. No political party has advocated eliminating province-wide bargaining.

As of October 15th the impasse stands with the government saying it won't talk to the teachers until they return to work ("obey the law"), and the teachers saying they won't return to work unless the government negotiates (meaning discusses working and learning conditions removed from the bargaining table by Bill 28 (2002)).

Most people who follow industrial relations know that the teachers will not get a pay adjustment until after June 30, 2006. Many teachers say that the dispute is not about money, but about working and learning conditions. Most offensive is the provision in Bill 28 (2002) that allows an unlimited number of special needs students to be placed in any class. Opinion polls indicate that the public agrees with the teachers that there should be limits on class composition. It is true that some special needs students, the visually and hearing impaired for example, have assistants; however, teachers must not only deal with those students but must also consult with their assistants, and thereby increasing their work load and taking time away from other students. It is understandable that teachers are angry that there is no longer any limit to the number of special needs students in any class.

Prior to the current dispute erupting into job action, the Campbell government announced that it was requiring school boards to post to their websites the actual class size of every class in their district. Why not take the next step and require school boards to report on how many special needs students are in each class? The public has heard a lot about that issue and deserves to know the extent of the problem. The government might be able to show good faith and reduce the conflict by agreeing to identify the number of such classes and to publish the recommendations of a respected third party educator on what should be done to deal with the problems created. That is the least the government might do to show good faith and de-escalate the conflict. With the right massage by influential advisors on both sides, that could also signal enough good faith to produce a return to work.

If a face saving resolution is not found in the next few days, what lies ahead? Ultimately the government will "win" and the teachers will be forced to return to work when the court bankrupts the union and, if necessary, imprisons its officers. No one should think that will return schools to business-as-usual. At the very least, sports and clubs will be canceled for lack of sponsors. High turnover, recruitment difficulties, and a boycott by the national teachers' organization are just a few of the many difficulties school boards and administrators will face if the dispute is "resolved" by way of a heavy fist. It would be no loss of face for the Campbell government to take a serious look at the number of special needs students in every classroom. That might be enough for all sides to find a way out of the worst teachers' strike that BC has ever experienced, all of which occurred after the government promised that education would be protected as an "essential service".