Oldest Living Blogger asks, "Is it the Full Moon, or the Silly Season?"
By Ray on October 16, 2005 - 9:00pm
From what I can learn, both sides in this dispute are in the
wrong, and there's nobody riding the white horse, or wearing
the shining armour of righteousness.
The government precipitated this situation by ignoring the
United Nations' International Labour Organization's
agreements with various national governments, including
Canada's, about acceptable practices in labour/management
dealings, and in doing so, cleared the way to pass local
laws which a UBC Law Professor says are legally questionable
at best, and possibly illegal by international terms.
The Teachers' union, the BCTF, adds another wrong to the mix
by thumbing its nose at the rule of law (whether that's a
good law or a bad one, it's still the law) and out they went
on strike.
What the hell have politicians and teachers got against kids?
It's always the same old story: the minute the fighting starts,
whether at home or at school, the kids are used as ammunition
in the adults' wars. Kids are completely expendable until
victory is achieved by one side or the other. Roadkill!
Governments govern, and teachers teach, and it's past the
time they all got at it, and quit this ridiculous posturing
and meaningless bullshit. 500,000 or 600,000 kids need
their schoolwork, and need to succeed in this year's work,
and they can't do that if the whole system is shut down until
someone decides who's the biggest turd on the pile here.
I've known ten-year-olds who made a lot better decisions
and made a lot more sense than what's been going on in
either Victoria or the BCTF's offices lately, and it's
absolutely disgusting. Everyone involved seems to be
completely oblivious to the fact that wars end, and then
the combatants have to co-exist together and get along
without bloodshed. Einstein said: "Wisdom is not a product
of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."
Obviously, neither our government nor our BCTF are showing
much wisdom these days, and they'd better get started.
Amen to that, Ray. This Ray also feels that some types of public emplyees probably shouldn't be unionized. For example, the army, the police, firemen and...yes...teachers and medical health workers. The right to strike is not necessarily a "right". Especially if society depends on your profession. As a simple example: suppose the Canadian Army unionized and decided to strike because of "bad working conditions" during a war. It would be ridiculous. So all "working Canadians" should not necessarily have the right to strike. I'm in favour of unions in the private sector, in fact they are necessary. However, the public sector is a different kettle of fish. I prefer to live in a society where the army, teachers, and nurses go back to being part of a "calling" and simply leave the profession if they don't like the conditions.
Teachers are not the same as police, firemen, and medical health workers. There's a life-and-death urgency to those services. Nobody dies when Johnny misses math class for a week (inconvenient for families though that may be).
Cambell and company brought this upon us all. Throwing collective bargaining out the window was like hucking a rock at a hornet's nest. Even the right wing teachers I know are supporting this strike (certainly more than they have in the past).