Charles Jago certainly didn't ask for the job.
That would be like volunteering your own neck to demonstrate a guillotine.
In late March, with the B.C. teachers strike heading into its seventh month, Jago agreed to then-Education Minister George Abbott's request to take on the task as mediator. His mission: convince 41,000 teachers to find common ground with a provincial government firm in its net-zero stance on public sector wage settlements.
Jago's appointment brought pessimistic criticism from BCTF president Susan Lambert, who cited Jago's lack of formal intervention experience when she referred to it as a "sham mediation process." But three months later, as a direct result of Jago's work, teachers ratified a two-year contract. The new deal meant the 69-year-old Jago could go back to his much-less calamitous life in Prince George, having accomplished his own mission impossible.
"I started in April and by the end of June we had an agreement, and nobody expected it," said Jago. "I don't think the BCTF expected it. They weren't happy with my appointment as mediator and tried to get me removed as mediator right up to the end. But at the end of the day we got a deal everybody could live with."
When Jago began meeting in April with the B.C. Teachers Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers Association, the two sides had made very little progress in nearly 100 previous meetings. Jago was basically starting from zero.
"There was legislation [in Bill 22] and the legislation provided for mediation and it also imposed conditions on that mediation and I had to work within those boundaries," said Jago. "We went through every emotion and it was very intense. Right up to the end, the deal could have fallen apart."
While Jago wouldn't go into specifics about what became the tipping point which led to the settlement, Prince George District Teachers Association president Matt Pearce said it was Jago's refusal to accept the BCPSEA request for concessions, which would have eroded agreements made to teachers in their previous contract.
"Dr. Jago did some remarkable work and he would not accept the contract-stripping that was being put forward by our employer, which would have been catastrophic in terms of job action," said Pearce. "We wouldn't be where we are today had he not told that to the employer. They had serious concessions on the table and that was a major barrier to the agreement being reached. If his published report [which Jago did not submit because he achieved a settlement] said no concessions, it would have been very difficult for cabinet to write legislation with more contract-stripping in it. He recognized it would have been illegal."
The return of local bargaining for teachers to settle non-monetary issues in future contracts was suggested during the spring mediation but there were no broad changes applied to the existing model that would bring back the old days.
"That could be part of the answer and that was certainly discussed at some length," said Jago. "I was willing to make some moves on that."
Although the strike was his first job as a mediator, Jago was well in tune with public sector bargaining, having had direct input in labour negotiations in 12 years as president of UNBC. He also leaned on his committee experience as chair of the Northern Health Authority and the Fraser Basin Council.
"I'm a person who loves challenges and I said in my first press conference this was mission impossible, but I've tackled missions impossible before," said Jago. "I could not have predicted the outcome, but I was fairly confident I had the skills that I could produce a good outcome. When you hold the positions I've held in life you do a lot of problem solving. Consensus-building is something I've done all my life and I just applied those skills to that problem.
"The high point for me came the day after the deal was announced, where a teacher here in Prince George said, 'Now I can look forward to going back to school in September.' Schools were not happy places and it released a lot of tension. It was delightful it turned out the way it did, in that both parties could take some pleasure in having reached an agreement."
Their track record in that department is abysmal. Since provincial bargaining for teachers was adopted in 1996, just one other negotiated settlement had been achieved, in 2006, when there was enough money on the table to work out a five-year deal. Amid further court challenges over Bill 22 launched by the BCTF, the current contract expires in six months and Jago is hoping history will not repeat.
"I find it very sad," Jago said. "It's a very complex agreement they have and the more they argue, the more both sides dig themselves deeper into a ditch. It's a very difficult situation and they have to be resolved to find a way to work together, and I'm not sure they're there yet. It's a very litigious environment."
