THE BIGGER PICTURE REGARDING ONTARIO'S TEACHERS

O.K. I plead guilty, sort of. How's that for a firm maybe? I've been reasonably content watching our provincial government and our public and high school teachers bashing each other publicly. On more than one occasion I've been known to say a pox on both their houses. In my mind both parties have a multitude of sins which have negatively impacted the public. I don't need to go back into them at this moment.

Thomas Walkom is neither the first columnist nor probably the last to suggest that the teachers' fight in Ontario has much bigger ramifications than just about education. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys Mr. Walkom's column titled
"Attack on Ontario's teachers a test case". Mr. Walkom correctly points out the increasing trend by both our federal Conservative Party in power as well as by our provincial Conservative Party, out of power, against the trade union movement. I must admit that there is a great deal of subtlty involved when provincially this trend appears to be shared by our currently Liberal provincial government. Mr Walkom also gives a very interesting historical analysis regarding the overall state of labour relations in this province. He suggests that it's only been the last sixty years plus that unions have had any recognition or status whatsoever in this province. That in and of itself should be a wakeup call to all organized labour in Ontario. Labour's rights are only entrenched for a very relatively short period of time.

If I were a right wing government, hell bent on restoring the longer term status quo in labour relations, I would also pick and choose my battles. This would mean picking on the most arrogant, well off unionists who have sucessfully alienated much of the population with their complaining. It would mean studiously ignoring unionized workers in declining industries such as textiles who might be earning all of $14 per hour. I would focus my attack upon a group who may well symbolize everything that is wrong with unions from those with a rightward slant. Then under the guise of reining in this relatively small group I would pass labour legislation that would negatively impact the entire labour movement.

By the way by longer term status quo I'm referring to the bad old days prior to unions even being legally recognized. That's probably where we are headed and I'm one of those who has missed the boat while watching our provincial government rein in teachers wages and benefits. This reining in was long overdue and perhaps if the provincial government had recognized how awful the system of teachers unions negotuating with school boards actually was; they could have fixed it long ago and avoided more draconian legislation recently. The boards and the teachers would have been very upset but maybe just maybe parents and children would have also been the winners. The boards long ago abandoned their duties and responsibilities to the public in favour of themselves via constantly selling the farm to the unions. Can the province not improve this without damaging the other unions out there who have to negotiate with serious and sincere representatives of capitol, namely the management of private firms? Management represent honestly the interests of shareholders whereas I do not believe that school boards remotely negotiate on behalf of their shareholders, namely you and I and the public.