Editorial — Somebody is to blame for the teachers’ strike
FRIDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — It might be too early to start doing post mortems on the teachers’ strike, but one can’t help thinking about what will have been won and lost.
The details, of course, have yet to be worked out, but the entry of famed mediator Vince Ready into the picture has certainly generated hope. Ready is the man who both the B.C. Teachers Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers Association wanted early this summer, the man they hoped could get them out of the stalemate. He was too busy back then.
But he’s available now and quietly met with the two sides, separately, on Wednesday. It’s all very preliminary, but he’s no willing to mediate if he thinks there are signs of movement.
As we’ve said a couple of times, all strikes get settled. Contracts are eventually signed, and everybody goes back to work. In the case of the teachers, the provincial government has had a habit of legislating them back to work out of concern for the education of our kids. This time the Liberals have stayed out of it.
So, we’ve endured weeks, nay, months of rhetoric from each side pointing the finger at the other. When the deal is done there will be handshakes all around and much conciliatory talk. Arch enemies will smile for the cameras and say how pleased they are for students and parents, and that X years of labour peace are now assured, blah blah.
Will anyone be held accountable for the mess that was created in the meantime? Will the BCTF’s Jim Iker get the boot? Will Education Minister Peter Fassbender be demoted?
Maybe, but probably not. Those who caused the problem will go back to their offices, while those who were hurt by it will be left to put the system back together.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
You are both off target! Any government with any real sense of social responsibility would enact legislation which would get rid of an antiquated adversarial model and replace it with a genuinely independent mechanism which would consign strikes and lockouts to the historical/moral junkyard. Both the BCTF and the provincial government need to get their heads out the 19th century -or their backsides!
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Mel, this is an incredibly stupid article and one that I am surprised that you would write. No one is to blame for a strike. It is one step in a bargaining process guaranteed by the constitution. Looking for someone to blame is like complaining about the weather.
As well, please do not second guess the motives of the provincial government. There is no evidence to suggest that in the past teachers have been legislated back to work “out of concern for the education of our kids”and much to suggest that public education is the least of their concerns.
Other than that, keep up the good work, Mel.
Peter Nelson
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