As parents merrily dropped off their kids to school this week, this year's back-to-school ritual isn't quite as blissful as in past years.
Prince George's school district is one of only four in the province cancelling recess in response to union staff job action, which includes refusing to supervise students during recess and could also lead to missing report cards if left too long.
Teachers are in one hell of a precarious position, as anything they do appears intent on using innocent children as pawns. Evidence of this can be seen in The Citizen's online poll asking what people think of the teachers' job action. In only two days, it drew 315 votes with 26 per cent of people answering "Why punish the kids?"
Public backlash is undoubtedly what the province is hoping for as they sit back and wait to see what the B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) does next to up the ante.
And making financial demands like double-digit salary increases, 26 weeks of paid leave to look after a sick friend or relative, a year's pay as a "bonus" for retiring, two weeks leave on the death of any friend and two sick days a month that can be banked - all within this economic climate, they could be looking at a public relations disaster.
Our online poll shows 36 per cent of voters believe "Teachers already get paid enough."
For the record, the remaining votes went to "It's a good way to get their point across" at 20 per cent, and "The union should be taking more extreme measures" at 18 per cent.
It seems several other public-sector unions in the province figured out the no-win situation when they settled with the government on its offer of no-net compensation increases for two years.
It's not like B.C. teachers are shockingly underpaid. Salaries top out at $75,000. And as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports, they're among the best paid in the world.
The organization reports teachers in the U.S. start at $35,999 US, while those in France begin at $23,735 US. With a starting salary of $40,000, B.C. teachers make more than those in nearly every other OECD country.
That's not to say the figures in France and the U.S. are adequate - far from it. It's become clich to say it, but it's still true that teachers have a crucially important job to do - not only for children and their parents, but everyone wanting to live a healthy society.
But in an economic climate such as the world is facing, and with unemployment and layoffs looming for many, how reasonable are the teachers' demands?
The BCTF needs to face the hard fact that financial sacrifices are being made in public and private sectors alike - teachers are not immune.
-- Prince George Citizen
