October 21, 2005

Back to School?

It is virtually unheard of for a union to call a news conference in the midst of sensitive talks with a mediator (or "facilitator"), yet that is what the BCTF did on October 20th. The BCTF has a long history of insisting that only trained teachers can teach but a BCTF spokesperson at the bargaining table need not be a professional negotiator. Teachers have always negotiated for the BCTF.

When someone like Vince Ready works with parties in a dispute, the parties are in separate rooms and rarely, if ever, see each other. The third party shuffles between the rooms without necessarily telling either side everything that the other has said. The role of the third party is to find a solution and move both parties to it. That is why it is bizarre that Jinny Sims went public with a news conference in which she attacked the employer for "not moving one millimeter". She wouldn't know exactly where the other side told Ready that it was prepared to move. Opinion polls have shown support for the teachers. The government must be shocked that the teachers are so angry and that their protest lasted two weeks rather than one day. Defeat should not be snatched from attainable progress that few but Ready can deliver.

Responsible union leadership would encourage teachers to vote to return to work in support of Vince Ready's recommendations. BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair did that when he announced that the Fed was not going ahead with further job action and that it expected teachers to vote on Ready's recommendations in consideration of what the consequences of not accepting those recommendations might be. In a subsequent interview Sinclair said that the BCTF is a very democratic union which is why he is certain that they will vote on Ready's recommendations. He made it clear that the BC Federation of Labour would support the teachers' decision whatever it might be. In his 3: 20 PM interview on CKNW, he said that he "is personally hoping that schools will open." Experienced labour leaders know that when Vince Ready makes recommendations there is nothing more that can be gained by rejecting them. By 5 PM Jinny Sims announced that teachers will vote on Ready's recommendations and that her executive would study them.

Throughout the dispute CUPE took job action independent of the BC Fed. Even though the BC Fed suspended job action, as of Thursday evening it appeared that CUPE would proceed with a withdrawal of services in the Lower Mainland - no garbage pickup, no university, no municipal services. If CUPE proceeds with its plans, it will be contrary to the best interests of organized labour, the teachers and thousands of CUPE members who would lose a day's pay. Jinny Sims should help by recommending acceptance of Ready's recommendations and by urging CUPE leader Barry O'Neil to call off all job action for October 21st, but that doesn't look likely.