On April 1, 1987, premier Bill Vander Zalm’s government introduced legislation that resulted in 99 per cent of B.C.’s teachers unionizing under the Labour Relations Act.
Twenty-six years later, it might seem a bit late to be wondering if the labour-union model was a good thing for public education.
B.C. teachers are back into court this month still seeking confirmation and clarification of a 2011 ruling by Supreme Court Justice Justice Susan Griffin. She said the government did not have the authority to restrict collective bargaining rights in 2002 with Bills 27 and 28, because those rights are guaranteed through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It has taken the teachers a decade to get the thing back into court, given that government still partly ignores the dictates of Griffin’s ruling.
Were it not for the power and resources of the union, it seems likely that government would have simply had its legislative way and ignored the collective-bargaining process as it applies to teachers, then and since.
For most of us, ignoring a Supreme Court judgment would bring swift consequences — even ignoring a traffic ticket can get messy.
Mark Thompson, professor emeritus at the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business made a good point in a recent interview: “If you care about income equality, if you care about job security, if you care about an alternative voice to employers, government and the general public discourse, then unions are a good thing.”
In other words, unions, both public sector and private sector, provide at least some balance of power that keeps those above from riding roughshod over the interests of those below. Whether or not you are a fan of unions, their existence helps our society maintain its sense of social justice and economic equilibrium.
Nonetheless, some observers argue that private-sector unions, at least, are in trouble. According to a recent survey, B.C.’s rate of worker unionization has fallen to 18 per cent of private-sector workers, down a dramatic 12 points from the 1980s.
One theory is that private-sector ranks have been devastated by increased global competition, job-munching automation (do you check yourself out at the supermarket now?) and a shift away from manufacturing.
Private-sector unions are not about to passively accept this situation.
Recently, 300,000 members from the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ Union merged into Canada’s and B.C.’s largest private-sector union named Unifor. The purpose is to bring more clout to their negotiations with employers in economic times that constantly challenge company profitability margins.
Jerry Dias, Unifor’s national president, speaking at the founding convention in Toronto, advised a reality check: “To be sure, Canada’s industrial relations system needs to evolve, and Canadian unions must innovate, in order to reflect changing labour market realities and pressures. But the fundamental reason for unions — the need for collective voice, and collective representation, for people who otherwise would not share in the economic progress of society — is still painfully obvious.”
Which brings us back to 26 years of conflict between the B.C. government and B.C.’s heavily organized public-sector unions like the B.C. Teachers’ Association and those other unions whose members keep education functioning but do not actually teach in classrooms.
With yet more confrontation looming so early in the school year, it seems timely to ask whether government, which has the big hammer, has fulfilled its mandate to act in the broader public interest or whether, by its own actions, it has continued to force the public-education unions to devote their energies and resources to protecting their members against unfair and, if Griffin is to be believed, even illegal legislated treatment.
No evolution, no innovation, no real discussion of changing realities from either side for a long time.
True, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, but maybe it is time — after 26 years of building then tearing down a series of unstable frameworks — for the construction of a new system that, for both government and public-sector unions, models something lasting built on a foundation of fair, ethical and principled labour-relations practices and that brings public interest back to the table.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
