Will teachers’ full-scale strike backfire on them?

THURSDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — Teachers in the Kamloops-Thompson School District will be off the job and on the picket lines again tomorrow and, the way things are looking, longer than that.

An announcement is expected later this morning that the B.C. Teachers Federation will direct its members to begin a full-scale strike early next week.

It appears this most drastic of actions, and the most damaging to kids’ education, is the only way the teachers’ union believes it can get what it wants from the B.C. Public School Employers Association, with whom it’s attempting to bargain a new contract.

Teachers gave their union a strong mandate to call a full strike when they voted this week. Eight-six per cent of those who cast ballots told the BCTF to put them into an ongoing strike if they must.

The high percentage in the strike vote is, as Education Minister Peter Fassbender has said, no surprise. Union members almost always provide a strong mandate to strike when asked — to do otherwise would be to give the employer the upper hand.

All along, teachers have insisted they’re bargaining to improve the educational well-being of their students. This move is the opposite of that, so it remains to be seen if they’ll be able to retain the public support their leaders insist they have.

It seems unlikely the goodwill can stand up to more than a few days of a full-blown strike. By then, the pressure will be so immense that somebody is going to have to make some serious concessions. As School District 73 superintendent Terry Sullivan said a week or so ago, something’s got to give.

So, the teachers will have accomplished their goal of moving towards a settlement. Question is whether the strike tactic will achieve the kind of settlement they want, or whether it will backfire.