Mediation debacle leaves egg on BCTF’s face
MONDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — Well, isn’t this embarrassing?
Details of the talks between the B.C. Teachers Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers Association got very public last week, maybe a little too public.
Who will mediate now?
A week ago, BCTF president Jim Iker held a press conference to blast the BCPSEA for supposedly refusing to respond to a major change in the BCTF’s demands in a timely manner, and for missing a golden opportunity to resolve the dispute.
Then the full-scale strike began. Thursday, Iker publicly called for a mediator to be brought in. The obvious choice, he said, was Vince Ready.
A day later, the BCPSEA agreed to mediation, but pointed out that Ready was out of the country and it wasn’t known if he was available. The BCTF should have discussed the mediation proposal with them first, said the employer, and they could have settled on a mediator they were sure could do the job.
That’s the way it’s usually done in bargaining. For whatever reason, Iker decided to undertake such an important step in the bargaining process in public without even knowing if Ready would agree to it.
As it turns out, according to media reports late Sunday, he isn’t. He says he’s too busy.
Now, Iker has egg on his face. He will, no doubt, find a way to deflect the blame to the BCPSEA but the fact is, this time it’s the BCTF that has thrown a wrench into the process.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I had a chat with the teachers last week about this whole mess. I started off telling them I am neutral. I don’t side with either them or the government. I am not sure how surprised they were but they did listen to what I had to say. I have in the past been a union member and I told them that, too. My husband is a union member. I am currently unemployed and I have applied everywhere for a position. I can’t find a job.
There salary dispute does not impress me much. I told them that this whole integration experiment for the last 30 years is a failure. There is not enough money to provide the support services that were promised when the then government brought in this pie in the sky idea. I went to school in Kamloops and my special needs son went to school here. It was a disaster for him. It was a systemic failure by principals, teachers, and learning assistant teachers. They need to start segregating the children that “don’t fit in”. Not in special schools, but remove them from the regular classrooms, with parental consent. I would have consented. My son did not have severe behaviour problems. His problem is that he has an invisible disability that manifests as deliberate behaviour even though it isn’t. We had all of the diagnoses. They just didn’t understand him.
We could try this out in a District with declining enrollment and see how it works. I even talked to my adult son about it and he agrees that this would have worked better for him than being put in a classroom where he was bullied by the teachers and students. Why is nobody talking about solutions and everyone is just bashing each other? There are limited resources, so lets come up with a better system.
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That would require brain power and common sense Tracy. Our universities are very good at eliminating both now a days. BTW,I do agree with you.
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