The finding by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin that, as a political ploy, B.C. government insiders attempted to implement a bargaining strategy intended to provoke a general teachers’ strike is breathtaking in its implications.
Given the sorry history of relations between the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. government, and given the thousands of words that have been written about the pros and cons of the ill-advised unionization of B.C.’s 44,000 teachers, no further proof is required that a strong union is all that stands between a do-anything-to-get-elected political party and the public interest as far as public education is concerned.
Had Justice Griffin not been able to name names and outline the specifics of the strategy, the whole affair would be beyond belief in its irresponsible betrayal of not just the province’s teachers, but 530,000 kids and their parents.
The social and economic upheaval that would have been caused by a general teachers’ strike and its implications for employers while parents scrambled to find responsible care during a school shutdown was apparently of no concern to government.
There was a time not so long ago when the revelation of such brazen duplicity would have been enough to cause a government to fall and force a general election. At the very least, ministerial heads would have rolled.
But no. In modern times, flagrant disregard for not one but two judicial floggings barely rates an apology.
Quite the contrary. Government announces without any hint of shame that it not only questions but will appeal Justice Griffin’s judgment and carry on as if nothing had happened.
As the teachers and government return to the bargaining table, the degree to which government has abdicated any rightful bargaining position has yet to be determined.
Any negotiation, whether in business or in labour relations, needs as a first understanding, that notwithstanding conflicting interests on either side of the table, integrity and good faith should define how the negotiation is to be conducted.
Once that trust has been lost, once one side clearly demonstrates that it has had no interest in claiming the moral or ethical high ground, the negotiation is in trouble.
For that reason alone, Justice Griffin’s findings are a game-changer.
Yet for the same reason, it is important that cooler heads prevail. Demands for an immediate return to the 2002 teacher-contract provisions regarding class size and composition might feel good to say out loud, but are clearly not doable, at least not immediately.
Government has lost the high ground, but there is nothing to be gained by anyone laying in the boots. Nobody admires that, and the BCTF can now enhance its position by beginning to assist government to work on the implications of implementing Justice Griffin’s recommendations.
Another curious aspect of the whole bizarre revelation is the deafening silence from “stakeholders.”
The B.C. parent council, the superintendents’ association, school trustees, the principals’ association, even the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association have been remarkably reluctant to comment.
Fortunately, what now appears to have been common sense on the part of the BCTF in not rising to the bait averted what might have been a long, drawn-out school shutdown.
Strange days indeed when government is so publicly caught with its ethical knickers around its knees, but somehow the negotiation will eventually result in a teacher contract and “peace in our time.”
Any hope for a “10-year deal” with a “trust us — we’ll assign increases based on our estimations of provincial economic growth” probably need to be tucked back into a zippered pocket of negotiator Michael Marchbank’s government-issue briefcase.
It need not be over yet, though, as long as both sides agree to start over with a commitment to fair play.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
