Editor:
As our labour dispute continues into uncharted territory, I feel that it is important to share my perspective from the pavement. I have just heard Minister Fassbender reject Mr. Iker's call for binding arbitration on wages/benefits arguing that they will only accept a negotiated settlement although the government seems to prefer a war of attrition that they are in a better position to survive. They are right. Their pockets are quite a bit deeper than ours. But unlike the health system where patient health is immediately jeopardized, I fear that the harm to BC education will only be felt in the future when the damage is irreversible.
When I wave from in front of my school, I am doing so in the small community of Burns Lake that I have called home for the past quarter century. I know that some of you wave because you support the teachers cause, some because you know me personally, and some of you are simply polite and see no harm in waving to a group of people who haven't been paid since May. Alternatively, some of you refuse to wave or express your frustration with the situation in a variety of ambiguous and not-so-ambiguous gestures. Let me share with you what we talk about on the pavement as you drive by.
Despite media coverage to the contrary, rarely does the conversation revolve around wages. When I first arrived in BC, teachers were the second highest paid in the country- now we are the second lowest (only PEI pays its teachers lower and pays less for its per student education costs). I attended a three hour general meeting in June where salary wasn't mentioned once (surprising since much of the current disagreement can be traced to 2002 when teachers gave up salary increases in exchange for class size and composition language in our collective agreement that was subsequently stripped by the government. Despite two Supreme Court losses, the government still hasn't rectified this situation). For teachers, this fight is not about wages. It is about our desire to improve the learning conditions in our classrooms, good-faith collective bargaining, and respect for public education. For 25 years I have been proud to be a teacher, but for the first time I am not proud to be a teacher in BC.
I am very demoralized and discouraged by the government's disinterest to return teachers and students to the classroom. My wife and I are both teachers who are feeling the economic and spiritual crunch of this cynical strategy of attrition. We will survive. Many younger teachers (who already need two jobs to survive until they move up the 11 year pay grid) will not. Some have already jumped ship and moved to other careers or are picking up to move to another part of the country. Our current student teachers at university are no doubt assessing where they will find future employment and cannot honestly see BC as their first choice. My greatest fear is for the future of public education after a protracted and embittered conflict humiliates and financially cripples teachers as a group of dedicated professionals. The government's view that teachers are essentially overpaid babysitters (cynically reinforced by paying parents $40.00/day during the strike) who only work six hours a day has never been true. Like many teachers, my wife and I have volunteered our time in countless ways. We coach boys and girls soccer, mountain-biking, skiing, and snow-boarding on top of our busy full schedule of classes. With other colleagues, we help organize assemblies, plan trips and drive busses to make these a reality. None of these activities show up on my job description or are applauded by the media (as they did for the one Track & Field Meet organized by parents in June and lauded by CTV), but this is one of the reasons I have chosen a profession rather than simply a job.
I love being a teacher. I will not be defined by what this government is trying to do to me professionally and personally. So when you drive by my colleagues and I on the pavement, remember to wave.
Pat Dube