In Summer 1969, the fourth of a sequence of poems fittingly enough titled Singing School, the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney ruminates on hatred, helplessness, the Troubles and Goya.
It's as good a place as any to contemplate the latest schoolyard brawl between this province's teachers and the B.C. Liberals.
According to David Fawbert, in the poem Heaney reflects on the Black Paintings from the Spanish Old Master Francisco de Goya. In Fight with Cudgels, "two berserks," one bloody, one trying to ward off blows to his face, try to beat each other to death with sticks at dawn "For honour's sake, greaved in a bog and sinking." Luckily for schools and everyone, it didn't reach the point of Saturn Devouring His Son, in which the insane, tyrannical Titan is "Jewelled in the blood of his own children.``
Plenty of blunt, telling blows exchanged, lots of muck both slung and wallowed in, students` education harmed but no youngsters actually consumed; it`s probably the best that can be hoped for when hostilities between the B.C. Teachers` Federation and the B.C. Liberal government reach the bricks. And it could have been much worse.
Of the two sides, teachers gave up the most. According to the National Post, Premier Christy Clark said she wanted the dispute over before Oct. 9, the day she leaves for a trade mission to India; the premier was likely contemplating legislating teachers back to work. Had the teachers held out on the picket line and forced the government to legislate them back to work, their upcoming case in the B.C. Court of Appeal against the B.C. Liberals` illegal contract stripping dating back to 2002 - an action they have already won twice - would be that much stronger.
The ruling they won earlier this year restored much of their contract to 2002 levels and caused the Liberals to squeal it would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. Another legislated contract could have forced the courts to be even harder on the Liberals to make the BCTF whole.
The problem for teachers was getting to that decision. The union was out of strike pay, its members were struggling financially, and it would be still need cash for legal fees. A Liberal legislated contract would have been much crueller, with far less pay (and thus less dues from which to rebuild the union's battered coffers) and it could have taken the BCTF years in the courts plus perhaps another strike to amend it in teachers` favour.
Indeed, the real losers from the teachers` settlement are the lawyers. When both sides head to the Court of Appeal in October, some of the dispute will already be settled by, according to TheTyee.ca, a $105 million fund paid by the government to settle potential grievances stemming from the aforementioned illegal stripping of class size and composition langauge from the teachers` contract. While the BCTF initially wanted $225 million, the union won`t have to hand any more blood and treasure to its legal counsel to extract compensation from the government.
The big winners of the dispute are the government and new or newer teachers. The government kept teachers to a modest 7.25 per cent increase over six years (albeit front-loaded and not funded by other concessions); saved money on both the grievances and teacher wages left unpaid during the strike; secured a "reopener" clause in the contract (E 81 for those still scoring at home) allowing them to renegotiate on class size and composition should they lose again in court; and won a detante with the BCTF until May 1, 2019, around two years after the next election.
The Liberals also, according to The Tyee, managed a fudge on new and specialist teachers. Instead of a $225 million fund for specialist teachers, the Liberals will instead provide the existing $75 million Learning Improvement Fund (now the Education Fund) - a sop the Liberals offered to teachers after stripping their contract - but will boost it to $80 million annually next year and $85 million in the final year of the contract. The fund will be exclusively for new teachers - $15 million was supposed to go to CUPE support workers - but, since many districts already dedicate most of the fund to new hires, the net gain in fresh faces in the classroom is expected to be minimal.
That said, there will be new teachers from the fund who will enjoy a job and teachers on call will also benefit from the agreement. Those educators, many starting out, will find it easier and faster to accumulate seniority and more pay. It also means the BCTF will be able to increase both its membership and the amount of dues it receives as it takes a breath from its latest heavyweight bout with the government.
The most horrible thing about Heaney's reflection and Goya's painting of that duel with stick are their fluidity - Heaney sees the two men "club each other to death"; Goya has them both still standing, still swinging, one obviously hurt, but the outcome far from certain. Each side still has plenty of vigour and each is literally dug in for the long, brutal, bloody slog through the mud to come.
The Globe and Mail noted in a September editorial this latest deal represents only the third negotiated settlement in 27 years. The B.C. Liberals got teachers to sign because the BCTF was running low on funds and morale; the union has five years to recover and possibly another landmark court victory to put under its belt.
The next time they meet in the bog - a holmgang, Heaney calls it - look for teachers to be bringing their biggest, heaviest club yet.
