From community to union

Dear parents, if you're still with me, let's talk about unions for a moment.  There was a time, and I think many of us still recognize that it still exists in many places, when people who did physical work were treated very harshly. We have heard about the coal miners of Appalachia or Nova Scotia who died over a number of days in mine cave-ins or died over a number of years from lung disease.  And we still hear about children locked in third-world factories who work long hours in unsafe working conditions.  

We mostly acknowledge that at one time, teachers were paid little and could be dismissed at the whim of a town politician or simply for marrying.  Happily in Ontario those days are gone.  But are they really gone if our teachers can lose the right to negotiate their employment contracts almost overnight? 

Many American states had good public schools but today there are more private or voucher schools south-of-the-border.  We know that teachers there are often paid little and are still at the mercy of local politics or politicians.  In these places, teachers often have to find part-time work to make ends meet. 

Ontario teachers would agree they are well-paid.  This was the reason that public school teachers were willing to accept a wage freeze from the beginning of negotiations.  The problem all along has been about the right to fair negotiations.  Most teachers know that without a union and without rights guaranteed by legislation, they are only a few steps removed from the conditions that exist in many American states.

Do you remember, from my February 15th post, our B.C. grandmother trying to save the old-growth forest?  Teacher unions are looking at the current situation where they've lost the right to fair negotiations and, like our grandmother, they're asking themselves how do we get the other side back to real negotiations?  How do we ensure the government wants to be at the table?

Compared to you or me, a union is a large and powerful entity.  Yes, it does have good resources at its disposal but still they're no match for government resources.  For negotiations to be successful, both sides have to want something and both sides have to be perceived by the other side as equal in power.  In other words, neither side should be at such a disadvantage that the other can simply take what it wants.

Now if you're negotiating against a government who has with the stroke of a pen taken away your legal right to negotiate, what remains to try and re-establish real negotiations?  Sadly the answer is that the only real option left for teachers, in order to come to the table with a semblance of power, is to withhold voluntary extra-curricular activities. As with the B.C. example in an earlier post, the alternative to real negotiations is twelve years of teacher unrest.

It feels like we're all caught between a rock and a hard place, and I know it's particularly hard if your child is at the end of high school, but to me the answer is obvious.  If I were a parent with children still in school, I would rather they lose one year of extra-curricular activities than have a generation of students face years of teacher unhappiness both inside and outside of the classroom. Teachers want to return to extra-curricular activities under the right circumstances but unfortunately at this moment, the extra-curricular card is the only one teachers still hold.

The rallying cry in union movements has always been "solidarity forever."  There is a reason for that cry; without alignment among members, a union comes to the table with a much weakened hand. When teachers accept positions in public schools, they do so knowing there is a union in place and that they are expected to be members.  They understand that union membership comes with expectations around behaviour.  If a teacher is truly against union membership, she can choose not to work in a public school.  In fact it is often easier to find a teaching job in a non-unionized private school.

All this to say that one can't have it both ways.  If you've chosen to be a member of a union or really to be a part of any organization, you have chosen to accept certain standards of behaviour.  When you are part of a union, you support your union and in return, you have better working conditions.  It's how we humans function and survive.  It's how we create a society where competing interests come together to create a fair shake for everyone.  It's isn't always an easy path, but it is a necessary one. 

The views expressed in this blog are my personal views only.  Tomorrow ... a look at the politics of education today.