Teachers Fire First Shot in Election War

BC Teachers strike | BCBusiness
B.C. teachers went on strike for three days, beginning March 5, 2012.

The recent teachers’ strike wasn’t about education, or even wage demands. It was the first skirmish leading to the next provincial election.

Now that the three day “strike” by the BC Teachers Federation is over, and all the panic calmed, it may be time to look at what it has accomplished.

Probably, you’re thinking, not much, other than a frantic scramble by parents trying to figure out what to do with their kids for three days, and the corollary anger at 1. The teachers, or 2. Their employers, the BC Public Employers Association (i.e. school boards).

If so, you’d be wrong. This was the first major shot in the next provincial election campaign.

Much like nurses, and other public sector employee unions, teachers in this province tend to be a militant bunch and threaten strikes at every contract talk. Sometimes they have a solid case, but other times they don’t.

It doesn’t really matter, because they’re going to be anti-government anyway – as long as that government isn’t the NDP.

That’s because the public service unions are the New Democratic Party. Their job is more than to act in the best interests of their members; it’s also to help install the NDP as the government.

All the bull being thrown around B.C. about the costs of teacher demands and employer responses isn’t the issue. These diverse cost estimates are just cannon fodder for the larger war. And that war is to throw out the Liberals and replace them with the NDP, which they believe will give them an easier ride during future contract talks. It’s always been that way.

But it might be a bit tougher today. Governments everywhere are tightening belts after many years of profligacy and a few years of bad economic conditions. Much of that spending profligacy was made to appease government workers, who make up a large percentage of the workforce.

As a result we have in this province (and in this country) two tiers of workers. The top tier involves government workers who, for the most part, are very highly paid. Teachers’ salaries are approaching $90,000 to $100,000 a year, much more than your average worker (the second tier).

Anyway, before we get into a bitter yeah-but argument about who deserves what they earn, recognize that it doesn’t matter.

Governments don’t have the money they need, whether due to their own stupidity, economic trends or both. Now they’re actually trying to do something about it by cutting back, especially at what many see as fat-cat public sector salaries.

So the next election in B.C., and probably in the rest of the country, is going to be about these government worker salaries and costs.