Who's not getting the job done?
Vancouver Island News Group
Tue 30 Aug 2005
Page: 0006

Section: Parksville Qualicum News - Opinion
Byline: TOM FLETCHER

Source:

Among the letters that came in after my recent column on
the teachers' endless labour dispute, one gentleman was insistent I should look
into the performance of the bargaining agent for B.C.'s 60 school districts

It's been straight downhill ever since those BCPSEA guys took over, he said.
They haven't settled a single contract, with the teachers being legislated back
to work three times in a row.

BCPSEA stands for B.C. Public School Employers' Association, established in
1994 as one of a half dozen agencies to deal with human resources for the
government. A child of the Harcourt years, its roots go back to the Vander Zalm
era when union status was imposed on the teachers. These days, BCPSEA seems to
have lots to do. In addition to protracted negotiations with teachers, the
bargaining agent deals with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, representing
school support staff, plus group benefits administration and so on

BCPSEA's latest newsletter paints a bleak picture of the state of relations
with teachers. The B.C. Teachers' Federation has rejected the "net zero" wage
limitation accepted by the rest of the public service. The BCTF list of demands
is dotted with broad concessions of management rights, notably over class size.

BCPSEA also got dragged into one of the BCTF's nasty internal battles, when
in 2002 a drama teacher defied his union's work-to- rule directive and continued
to hold play rehearsals. The BCTF fined the teacher, who complained to the
Labour Relations Board. Then the BCTF filed an unfair labour practice complaint,
alleging the employer group encouraged the drama teacher to make a stink.

The BCTF's whole weird case was tossed out, with the LRB noting since drama
performances count for marks, the rehearsals are part of essential-service
teaching anyway.

In the real world, the parent of a special needs child calls into a radio
show to say her severely-handicapped daughter does much better in a "resource
room" with specialized aides rather than the one-on- one care dictated by
integrated classrooms.

The C.D.
Howe Institute
cross-references class sizes and marks, and finds that in the range experienced
in public schools, smaller class sizes do not deliver higher marks

Suddenly, the BCTF's core arguments over class size and special needs support
start to look like ways of fattening teacher numbers and union dues.

In any case, the government isn't about to transfer the education minister's
authority to the union. The NDP tried that and it didn't work

Instead of being a social justice organization or a political party, the BCTF
could try its hand at being a plain old union that represents its members.

Maybe then it will get a settlement for those members.

Copyright 2003 parksville

Edition:
Length: 449 words