Democracy In Action

A clear majority of respondents to a recently concluded Ipsos Reid poll "believe that the teachers are well-compensated -- some would say pampered -- that their working conditions are just fine.
"Because of that, they think extracurricular activities should be built into [the teachers'] current contract", explained spokesman John Wright.

Ontario teachers' unions have been apoplectic with fury that Education Minister Laurel Broten exercised the authority invested in her Ministry through the Government of Ontario to impose a two-year contract on Ontario teachers. No surprise that she resorted to that action. The government asked teachers to accept a two-year wage freeze on their generous salaries, to aid in wrestling with the intolerably high provincial deficit.

Some of the perquisites of the working conditions were also cut back; teachers now have fewer sick days to call in with, and can no longer bank them as had been done previously. These changes will not represent a hardship to well-paid educators. The teachers' unions claim righteously that they can live with the changes and with the two-year salary cap, but it is the 'high-handed' manner in which the government imposed the settlement that offends them.

It is not a very good demonstration of democracy in action, they sniff loudly. Instead, the unions have instructed their teachers to demonstrate democracy in action by going out on (illegal) strike, and calling it a protest. In view of the fact that a special bill was enacted forbidding strikes, that change in nomenclature, if not intent and reality was needed, to demonstrate democracy in action.

Not enough that teachers have withdrawn participation in anything they can interpret as 'extra-curricular'; any activities that take place outside normal working hours - including fifteen minutes before the official start of the school day when teachers are normally present to supervise the entry of students to school, and the reverse in the afternoon, but meeting with parents, and writing details in report cards are also excluded.

This is not an exercise in spite, mind, it is an democratic exercise of protesting actions offensive to teachers' guarantees under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The unions and those teachers who support their aggressive actions spoke vociferously of the undemocratic action of the government, but it appears the public has not all that much sympathy with the behaviour of the unions.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled that their planned one-day walkout for Friday represented precisely what the government labelled it as being: an "illegal strike". Which the union was then forced to call off, creating in the wake of the entire action, uncertainty from school boards to parents not knowing how they should respond; whether to keep schools open and allow students to remain there for the day, or to close.

In the end, some teachers went back to the classroom, with most schools opening, while a handful of others were not able to react swiftly enough to welcome students back to the classroom where they belong, if they hadn't been held hostage to the unions' illegal and petty reactions to the Minister of Education's ruling.

Ontario, and indeed all of Canada should think about doing things differently. Strike action is sometimes called for. In private industry. Not so much in government. Where government services of any kind constitute a monopoly because only government can provide critical services to the public, strikes should be outlawed.

That might impel both government agents and union representatives to bargain in good faith as partners in ensuring good, reasonable employment environments while providing to the public the services that their tax dollars pay for.