Coming and Going

Finally British Columbia teachers are heading towards a strike. This has been unavoidable since the last election when the teacher’s union (BCTF) was the most vocal organization against the Liberal Party, the present government. There is no suspense to the failure of negotiation. And there is no surprise in public reactions. The most common one is: “the teacher should get pay more, but this [job actions] will only hurt the kids.” This usually comes from the parents. It is quite understandable but that does not make it any less self-serving and unjust. If the parents truly believe that the teachers should get pay more, they should pressure the government to do so. But of course, the parents are the one that elected the party that says that they would not pay the teachers more. Now they want the teachers to not take job action so as not to hurt their children. That is convenient, isn’t it? They want to get it both ways. They want to sympathize with the underpaid teachers, but do not want to pay them more. They want the teachers to ask for more pay, so long as they do not inconvenient them. It is a beautiful circle--elect a government that would not pay the teachers more and use the children to blackmail the teacher back to work. Brilliant!