NOTE TO BCTF --- you are not the employer

I'm going to start by saying this blog will likely get some people ticked; however here goes.

Two decades of provincial negotiations with the BC Teachers Federation have resulted in only one collective agreement --- all others have been imposed. Many you reading this probably know why; for some reason or other the BC Teachers Federation doesn’t seem to understand they are not them employer!

Years ago I worked at a unionized open pit copper mine. The union bargaining committee were able to negotiate safety issues, wages, work hours, etc ... typical things that would be brought up / negotiated during bargaining in the public sector.

Teachers though??? Well they seem to think think they can negotiate how few days and hours they work --- how small class sizes should be – the pay they receive – where and when they work – and on and on it goes.

The BCTF needs to understand what everyone else in the workplace does; there are employers, and there are employees. As long as they are not breaking labour law and WCB regulations the employers basically make the rules -- and for those who are the employees, they accept the work place conditions and work with the employers to have change brought about that both party’s can agree to.

Just because teachers are government employees, and in a union, does not mean they have special powers and can hold parents, students, and the government to ransom.

A media release from the BCTF states:
With their current contract set to expire on June 30, 2011, teachers across BC now are in the first phase of an important round of bargaining to reach new collective agreements for the 41,000 members of the BC Teachers’ Federation.

“We know there are obstacles and challenges ahead, but we are eager to participate in a constructive round of good-faith bargaining to reach a negotiated settlement that meets the needs of teachers and students alike,” said BCTF President Susan Lambert. “In doing so, both the union and the employer can help make BC’s fine public education system even better.”

And again the teachers union, as I have mentioned, are linking working conditions and students’ learning conditions, as part of their bargaining objectives. That indeed will be an obstacle -- and a challenge.

The BCTF has said in their polling that 89% of British Columbian's believe that new Premier Clark should ensure more co-operation with teachers and other education partners.   Co-operate YES -- capitulate -- NO.

Regardless, I'm pretty sure it was a fairly biased poll, and that most taxpayers will agree that administrators in the eduction system should be the ones who are in charge. The B.C. government cannot, and should not, dismiss public-sector wage restraints simply to reach a new collective agreement with public-school teachers.

Here's my suggestion --- send the BCTF a notice; we are the employers, you are the employees.

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops, and those are the thoughts of one conservative.