Jennifer O'Keeffe: Christy Clark’s union-busting project fails to recognize value of education
As we approach this Labour Day long weekend—the federal statutory holiday of recognition for the achievements of workers and the labour union movement—the lack of a fairly negotiated settlement between the B.C. Liberals and the BCTF is, ironically, a testament to the relevance and importance of unions and the true spirit of Labour Day.
The Liberal government, with Premier Christy Clark leading the way, seems intent on continuing their efforts to provoke and antagonize teachers and their union, devaluing the contributions not only of teachers, but of education itself. Further, their failure to engage in meaningful negotiations and their denigration of the teachers’ union—and unions in general—reveals their ignorance for the fundamental importance of unions and their contributions to the numerous freedoms and rights Canadians currently possess.
Christy Clark and her colleagues seem oblivious to the significance of unions, their struggles to improve conditions for the average citizen—not just union members—and their contributions to democracy and the economy itself. Perhaps if Clark had done her homework she would have a more informed opinion? As even such a conservative bastion as the World Bank has noted (Unions and Collective Bargaining: Economic Effects in a Global Environment, 2003), the higher the rate of unionization, the lower the unemployment and inflation; the report also determined unionization results in higher rates of productivity and faster adjustment to economic shocks.
The presence of labour unions is, in fact, a reflection of the relative health of a democracy; as the absence of a unionized workforce is a hallmark of fascist and totalitarian regimes.
B.C teachers have been working without a contract for years! They have struggled not only personally, but professionally, in their efforts to continue to furnish students—and thus, society—with not merely knowledge and skills, but with the ability to think critically about issues. Teachers have struggled to do their jobs despite a calculated campaign—let us not forget that Clark and her government have already been found liable in court for their attempts to provoke teachers into job action—to undermine their efforts and disrupt the education of tens of thousands of students.
As Canadians across the land prepare to enjoy a long weekend celebrating the achievements of workers and the labour unions that have given so much to our society, the people of B.C. continue to witness the unseemly spectacle of a government that revels in its own ignorance, disparages the contributions of working men and women, and—most damning of all—displays a complete and utter lack of regard for the value of education.
Comments
13 Comments
Arthur Vandelay
Aug 29, 2014 at 3:05pm
Dear Jen
Your argument would be more persuasive if at the same time you were asking the government (aka the taxpayer) to spend more money, to yourself say, that you will be more than willing to pony up your share of these extra costs. Hence you would propose an across the board tax/fee increase to pay for this concern of yours.
What's that? You want the services but think someone else should pay for it? I thought so.
Thankfully...
Aug 29, 2014 at 3:38pm
... almost all education is done, by "winners", at home/on the street/in the library/on the internet. Only real gutless losers need to be spoon-fed and led by the nose by an educational bureaucrat, that is, a union hack teacher.
I'm just an average Canadian, AFAIK. I'm not super-smart. My grandmother taught me to read and write and do basic math before Grade 1. In fact, she taught me so well that it caused difficulty when I didn't want to do things in the slow, ridiculous way the hack was trying to teach. This is when I learned something _horrifying_.
Many people are little more than robots doing symbol manipulation. That is, the robot sees "1+1" and writes down "2." It has no understanding of what the "+" really means---all the robot knows is that 1+1 means 'write down 2.' A computer is capable of operating at this level---so are many lower mammals, heck, even _pigeons_ could be trained to visually discriminate "1+1" and punch a '2.'
Public education is how you build a society of losers who can only cope in a society of other publicly educated morons. And let's remember: the duty to educate one's children is one that rests upon parents---not the school board and not the province. If parents are so indolent as to rely on the Government to educate their children, well, we have far bigger problems than the funding of public education.
For myself and everyone I know who is reasonably intelligent, K-12 was supervised reading time at best, torture at worst, from being surrounded by losers and from being told "no, it's time to read this grade-appropriate book!" Public Education is all about teaching mediocre losers that if they "follow orders" they, too, can be something---at least in a co-dependent society of losers, which is thankfully all we have to live in, thanks to unions and other collectivist morons.
ursa minor
Aug 29, 2014 at 3:54pm
Arthur Vandelay - If you read Charlie Smith's piece at this site, you'd know that it's not an issue of raising taxes to pay for public education, it's getting the government to stop spending tax money on non-essentials like a state-of-the-art stadium for privately run entities like the BC Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps to use for next to nothing, or the Compass Card which, even before it's circulated, has cost Translink more than the fare evasion it was supposed to prevent.
On a somewhat related note, it's good to see the Straight doesn't appear to be taking ads from either side in this dispute, unlike the allegedly progressive Tyee who have gone all in with the Government...
Black Heart
Aug 29, 2014 at 11:25pm
Come now, the Premier has put a value on education: $40.00 per student per day. Working from their homes, charging students $40. a day, a teacher could earn $2000.00 a week for teaching a class of 10 students.
slingshot5
Aug 30, 2014 at 11:06am
The BC Liberals' own economic growth numbers and projections show that they can afford the settlement on class size and composition if they want to. They have deliberately reduced education as a part of the provincial budget as an excuse to say that they can't. They probably could do it without raising taxes, but a moderate raise is not a bad idea (say 1%). They average effect on people would be small and we would be done with the issue.
But that won't play with their base support (a minority of voters, by the way).
We already have the lowest taxes in Canada. We would still have them with a 1% increase.
The BC Libs just want the BCTF and students to pay for their economic mismanagement of the situation because if they settle it will embarrass them, especially Premier Clark, the very person who started the problem by illegally stripping contracts.
400 ppm
Aug 30, 2014 at 12:25pm
Jenifer,
The people of BC, whom you somehow seem qualified to speak for, elected this government. Three times. With majorities. They are fine with it.
And as your running for public office, you must be cool with criticism. You sound like every politician in the Western World from the past 50 years: them bad, us good.
Given how much you have it at stake in the future and how badly your generation has been screwed over, you need to waaaay better than status quo. Gov't gigs are cushy, but they accomplish nothing. Look around you.
bobo
Aug 30, 2014 at 1:52pm
Everyone recognizes the value of education, it's the value of unions that is in question. What a bunch of clueless entitled snotty nose teachers (and their union). According to the teacher's union, the average teacher earns $70,000 per year for working a 9 month schedule. On top of that they get a very generous benefits package, yet they still cry for more. That's way above the average salary in BC, so I have absolutely no sympathy for the union. Neither does anyone else I talk to.
Rhea
Aug 30, 2014 at 7:07pm
Government needs to provide B.C. Public School students and teachers funding and support comparable to the Canadian average. This has gone on long enough. Where is no-care Christy?
M
Aug 31, 2014 at 8:44am
You what some of the students will be the age to vote
Brian
Aug 31, 2014 at 7:36pm
To bobo and the other idiots who think teachers have it easy, keep in mind that they spend way more time than their contractual hours planning, marking, coaching, sponsoring clubs, and communicating with parents. If you factor that in, their salary isn't much more than the school custodians. Their salary is based on a 10-month school year, and they are not paid for the summer. The benefits are partly paid for by deductions from their paycheques. And the Vanc Sun posted that the average salary for someone in Vancouver is just over $71000, the average cost of living for Van is about the same for a family. I think teachers work damn hard under tough conditions, and this gov't is not adequately funding the system; I don't even mean basic salary increases for inflation, but simply keeping the building going and learning materials in the hands of the kids. A recent report said that the gov't has budgeted a 0.6% yearly increase for education and needs to budget 2.4%; in health care, 0.6% should be 2.8%, and that could be paid for if the corporate tax the Liberals eliminated would be restored (because corporations are NOT investing the surplus in our economy) and Christy would stop giving ridiculous raises and bonuses to her cronies. Wake up, sheep, the Liberals have brainwashed you into believing their LIES.