1. Personal Disconnect
Something has been bothering me since we entered into this round of collective
bargaining last year and I have been unable until now to put a finger on the source of my
discontent.
When I taught elementary school we used to talk to the students about “Feeling No”
when dealing with relations with adults that didn’t seem quite right. That is the very kind
of feeling I had late last year and have continued to have throughout this past summer. I
have had difficulty trying to put a finger on it, nevertheless something hasn’t felt right all
along. I have pondered long and hard and hopefully I have come to a conclusion about
what feels so wrong about this round of collective bargaining.
In 2007 Vince Ready made some recommendations about collective bargaining for
teachers in this province that might improve the chances for successfully concluding and
agreement. Though I have asked in numerous quarters I have never received a definitive
answer as to whether any of those recommendations have been acted upon. If not, shame
on us. Ready has bailed us out of self created messes in the past and I believe his
observations were worthy of careful consideration.
We knew we were going to face a tough round of collective bargaining with a
government and employer who have demonstrated a desire to cut back on supports for
public education. Yet throughout the Spring we did little to enhance the public image of
the teaching profession with our refusal to entertain substantive change in our
relationship with the BC College of Teachers. This has been well documented in the
press with every miscreant teacher now being attributed as being “protected and coddled”
by the BCTF. We set a stage for collective bargaining where the public was coming into
it with a less than supportive perception of the Federation.
We then went about soliciting member input about what should be bargained. Members
provided input and received general statements back. Things like we want a competitive
wage and benefit package, we want improved post and fill provisions, we want a better
process of teacher supervision and evaluation. These are motherhood statements and I
was gobsmacked when I found out, through the press, what those things actually looked
like when they got to the employer. Now I found our bargaining package is being costed
out at $2.1 billion by the employer and I am having difficulty justifying to my next door
neighbour why I need 10 days bereavement leave when somebody dies somewhere.
We have allowed the government and the employer to set a public image of teacher
collective bargaining and have done nothing to prepare our own members for that
onslaught and in fact, through our own actions, contributed to the negative public
perception.
The timing and process of our Phase I Job Action has been abysmal. In June we were
asked to approve giving the BCTF a strike mandate for Phase I Job Action. This we duly
went out and did. However it was only 66% of us who provided that mandate despite the

2. tremendous efforts of the NVTA to make voting as simple and convenient as possible. I
still do not feel comfortable with a strike mandate that is 90% of 66%. This indicates to
me that a lot of BCTF members voted with their backsides and stayed home. If I were in
a position of leadership I would not be counting heavily on the security of that 90%.
There are a lot of people out there who until this point have said nothing and we have no
idea how they will react when push comes to shove. We have done very little to bring
them along yetour leaders still go about touting an “overwhelming vote of support” for
the bargaining objectives of the BCTF and for Job Action. I doubt, that other than those
serving on the NVTA Bargaining Team, that any of us could pass a ten question quiz as
to what those objectives actually are. I know I voted Yes not because I was
overwhelmingly in support of what the union was doing or because I thought our
objectives were absolute essentials in improving my working conditions or the learning
conditions of students. I voted Yes so employer would not have the luxury of ramming a
weak strike mandate down the throat of the BCTF.
With that strike mandate in hand and knowing that the mandate is only legally good for
90 days I would have expected the BCTF to be in full time bargaining throughout the
summer in order to bring about an agreement before the opening of school. Instead no
negotiations were scheduled until August 23 and our President informed the media that
everybody needs a holiday. Well it seems to me that when we, as BCTF members, pay
the kinds of dollars we do to support that organization that they would be working 24/7 to
prevent the disruption of the working lives of 41 000 public school teachers and the
educational lives of nearly ½ a million students. “Everyone needs a holiday,” is not good
enough. Even with that in mind the final arbitrators ruling on what those negotiations
would look like did not come about until September 2. Hopefully some people are now
at the bargaining table trying to conclude and agreement or is it that our negotiators need
another long weekend of holiday after a strenuous summer of head to heads with
BCPSEA. (sic)
Now lets take a look at the job action itself. When we voted in June we voted for
something similar to the Phase 1 Job Action of previous years. Many of our members
were not teachers then, so they had no idea what we were talking about. Many, like
myself, being in our advancing years, have the newly acquired impediment of reduced
short and long term memory. So we voted for a pig in a poke not really knowing what the
job action would look like or when it would be implemented. Those decisions were made
at a Special Rep Assembly over summer of which rank and file members had no prior
notice, no agenda, and no outline of what our representatives would be voting on. By
scheduling the Special Rep Assembly for the summer months when reference to the
membership is almost impossible, the BCTF effectively cut off any avenue of input for
rank and file members. I feel disenfranchised and resentful of a processs where I have
had my opportunity for voice in the nature of the job action effectively nullified.
Additionally, the look of the job action, as it applies in North Vancouver only arrived in
our letter boxes (for those of us who signed up for eMail, who follow NVTA Only or
have registered with nvta.ca) on September 1. Members have had no opportunity for in
person clarification of how the job action is supposed to work before they are expected to

3. carry it out.
There will be no opportunity to address member concerns before the job action is in
effect and I worry that we will end up with school-defined job actions; Carson Graham
different than Argyle, different to Queensbury, and different from Ridgeway. This set of
circumstances will do nothing to reassure the public that we know what we are doing.
Parents will know that different things are happening in each school. Please do not
believe for a moment that Parent Councils will not be sharing information. This is
exactly what we would expect them to do. Are we prepared to engage in countless phone
calls and emails with parents updating them individually about how their child is doing in
each course.
Given that there was effectively no collective bargaining over the summer and given that
the BCTF/NVTA had no opportunity for consultation with the membership prior to the
opening of school, and given that members are unclear about the job action I see no
reason that the onset of job action could not have been scheduled to begin on September
12 by which time the all locals of the BCTF could have had General Meetings to bring
the membership up to speed and clarify any misconceptions.
What we have now is a union that appears to have been more anxious to go on strike than
to achieve a settlement. We have a union where the members are being told in a top
down fashion what they can and cannot do.
This Job Action is not my Job Action, it is the Job Action mandated by the BCTF that I
am expected to carry out knowing full well that it will have negligible impact in bringing
about a settlement. Someone out there seems to have the impression that it is a right of
passage for every trade unionist that they participate in a strike. Strikes are not soul
cleansing experiences. Ask the miners in Great Britain or the Air Traffic controllers in
the United States. What I believe we are now embarking upon is a strike for the sake of a
strike. Not a strike to bring about the conclusion of a collective agreement. Work to rule
campaigns have not worked in public education in the past nor will they work this time.
The employer has become much more sophisticated in his/her response to our actions.
They are no longer afraid when we huff and we puff. And all we can say when they
cancel recess in Kelowna is that it is not the teachers’ fault. How lame.
Now I understand why I have that “Feeling No.” I feel as if I can no longer say, “I am
the BCTF.” I feel much more like the old horse, Boxer, in Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”
Like the horse, maybe I should just resign myself to being glue, but I still think we can do
better.