At Christmas, put kids first

There is union solidarity, and then there is sheer stubborn, not to mention self-defeating, humbuggery. This stand by the union leadership falls squarely in the latter category, earning it the justified disdain of parents and public alike.

At Christmas 1914, the world had settled into the terrible slaughter of the First World War. Yet for a few blessed hours, the spirit of the season was transcendent.

From opposite sides of no man’s land between the British and German trenches, men appeared, first in tentative ones and twos, then in numbers.

As one soldier told it, “we began to all shake hands and then we began to swap things like cigarettes and cigars and chocolate and cognac ... and everything got very friendly and happy and we stayed out there the whole of the day.”

It is one of the happier stories of that great slaughter. It could stand as a lesson to the enemy combatants of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

As the Star’s Kris Rushowy reported last weekend, the union representing Toronto’s 4,000 Catholic elementary teachers has sent a memo to members reminding them what they can and can’t do in December given their ongoing work-to-rule campaign.

No Christmas concerts. No holiday decorating of classroom doors. No gingerbread house contests.

The board called it disappointing because “we know how happy these activities make students and we are sad that they will not occur for the second year in a row.”

Even if one disagrees with the board on every single contract particular, it’s hard not to nod in sad agreement with that sentiment.

Julie Altomare-Di Nunzio, president of the teachers’ union, at least had the decency to acknowledge the rotten hand she was dealing out to innocent victims of the standoff.

“It’s not pleasant and it’s not fun,” she said. But teachers have been without a contract since 2019, she went on, and “we don’t want this to go into the New Year.”

The union memo obtained by the Star said “it is vital that all permanent members (of the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers union) continue to remain vigilant by participating and maintaining the work-to-rule strike action.”

Members were reminded they were “prohibited from participating, planning or assisting in any extra-curricular, whole school and voluntary activities. This includes, but is not limited to, activities such as school assemblies, submission of names for monthly virtue celebrations, participating in a school virtual Christmas concert, coaching, fundraising activities, door decorating activities and/or a gingerbread contest.”

There is union solidarity, and then there is sheer stubborn — not to mention self-defeating — humbuggery.

This stand by the union leadership falls squarely in the latter category, earning it the justified disdain of parents and public alike.

The current cohort of elementary students has been through an unprecedented time of disruption and loss, the consequences of which will be felt for years.

Teachers, too, have been working on the front lines of a global COVID-19 pandemic with all the risk and stress that entails.

The holiday season presented the warring sides — and the children they purportedly consider paramount — with an opportunity for sweet respite, for the comfort of ritual, for something like normality.

Surely, the holiday season is for children above all.

And surely, the central story of the Christmas season is about values greater than the petty, contractual “and/or” of nixing door decorations and gingerbread.

Surely, the example of those battle-weary soldiers more than a century ago – able to pause even the deadliest of hostilities in the name of humanity’s higher aspirations – should inspire generosity worthy of the season.