Back to school
It is bad enough that tens of thousands of Ontario secondary students are currently locked out of their classrooms — potentially at risk of losing the year — and that their younger counterparts may well face a similar situation as of May 10, when a strike mandate kicks in for public elementary teachers. It is doubly infuriating that parents have so little insight into what, exactly, teachers are upset about.
It’s not just money, heavens no. It is rather, as Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Sam Hammond said recently, “a number of things in terms of trying to micromanage classrooms,” and “a couple of items that attack our members’ judgment and professionalism in general.” It’s about “working conditions,” said the head of one striking union local, “which have been under pressure for quite some time now, with ministry and school board initiatives that are constantly being piled on.” Not very enlightening. To the limited extent we can make out what “things” or “items” or “initiatives” the union objects to, some only make sense at a time when Queen’s Park is out of money: for example, a demand from the Ministry of Education that any salary increases be offset elsewhere, to result in a “net zero” spending increase. Some are decidedly non-earth-shattering: slower travel up the salary grid, for example. And some are just silly. For example, the school boards want to hire the best teachers, not just the ones with the most seniority. The union, naturally, objects.
Is there a single parent or student in all of Ontario who would value seniority over quality in a teacher? What sort of professional would even want to be judged on that basis? Schools are not assembly lines, churning out widgets; they are educating children. It’s hard work. Passion, ingenuity and creativity are key. The oft-cited problem of nepotistic and unfair hiring practices is no reason to choose teachers in such a foolishly simplistic way.
This labour unrest was not unforeseen: It is the first time bargaining has been split into two tiers, with the province-wide unions negotiating bigticket items like salaries with the provincial school board associations, and each local board negotiating smaller items like transfer policies with each union’s local chapter. It is at the local union level that these strikes are occurring: In Durham Region for two weeks, in Sudbury for one, and beginning Monday in Peel Region, keeping 42,000 kids at home.
But the secondary school strikes are not necessarily occurring where they are because of local concerns. The provincial union executive targeted those ridings for strikes in hopes of putting maximum pressure on the bigticket negotiations. These so-called “strategic strikes” are not a good-faith use of the new process, and they make political pawns not just of students but of their teachers. Both groups have every right to be mightily miffed.
Good teachers are essential to a society. All evidence suggests Ontario has lots of them, and that they are treated relatively well. They have every right to fight for the best deal; they have every right to complain when they don’t get it. But it is simply unreasonable for them to pick the nuclear option, shutting down schools, putting themselves out of the work they claim to love, over some minor and eminently surmountable grievances with their employer. Ontario has rewarded such tactics in the past. It is right, if belatedly so, to dig in its heels.