It has been said that the first casualty of war is truth, but in the playground spat between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Liberal government, the first casualties seem to be the common sense, dignity and decorum of public education.
Instead, we are treated to a government appointee, Peter Cameron, calling the elected chairwoman of the Vancouver School Board “borderline bizarre” for fulfilling her responsibilities by seeking legal clarification of what legislated or judicial foundation or authority would justify docking teachers’ salaries or preventing them from coming into schools to prepare lessons or provide extracurricular assistance to kids.
Some authority, that is, beyond what the appointee or even the minister might say in a letter devoid of any ministerial order or order-in council, much less any legislative debate or passage.
Parents, kids and the taxpaying public watch as the BCTF persists in wage demands far outside those agreed to by 47,000 health-care workers. Then, rather than exercise the kind of patience that recognizes that its members just want to wind up the school year with thoughtfully prepared assessments of student progress, graduation ceremonies and leaving everything in good order for September startups, the union ramps up and calls for rotating strikes.
Rotating strikes began in schools this week and will last four days, with every school in B.C. closed for one of those days just when Grade 12 students, facing exams that might either launch or limit their post-secondary options, need all the help they can get.
Then the government, which from nowhere had originally insisted upon an unlikely 10-year agreement, then decided that six years would do. Before any consideration or discussion about where that came from, the government issued a basically unenforceable dictum that teacher pay will be docked by five per cent and — if you don’t go to your room right now and stay there, young man — it will be 10 per cent.
No explanation of how those figures were calculated, or how and under what authority that arbitrary clawback would be done, given that negotiations are underway and the expired but still-valid contract that defines compensation is still the law.
The government, through its appointee, then imposed a “lockout,” which will also restrict the amount of time teachers will be permitted to be at work and, if a deal isn’t reached by the end of June, force high-school teachers to stay home for three days and elementary teachers to be off work for one day.
Teachers are directed not to work during recess or lunch, and must not be at work more than 45 minutes before or after classes. No committee meetings. No professional development activities.
The irony here is that this is exactly what the union itself has directed in the past as “job action.”
Who will prevent teachers entering the workplace before the allowed time nobody seems to know. Just who will keep an eye on the kids, many of whom in many districts arrive in buses well before school begins, does not seem to have been considered by the authors of the “lockout.”
Confusion reigns, and another letter sent to the union last week by the employer, in this case again the government appointee, did not help. The letter, detailing pay reductions and lockout specifics, gave teachers mixed messages about participating in activities, such as track-and-field events.
On the one hand, it seemed, “voluntary activities” could continue. Clearly, the government does not want to be directly responsible for the cancellation of grads, band concerts and track meets. On the other hand, it wanted to “punish” teachers who would be prohibited from being on the work site beyond school hours.
This ignores the fact that no matter where a track meet, concert or grad ceremony is held, if that event, voluntary or not, is under the auspices of the school or schools, that place, in the eyes of WorkSafe B.C. at least, is the work site.
Normally speaking, we could look to cooler heads to prevail here, but like one of those soccer games where the referees have fled the field seeking personal safety, what we see is not an orderly process, but chaos.
Public education deserves better.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
