Public sector labour talks in B.C. have never been easy. The unions that represent all sorts of hard-working people in tough jobs always want more money and better conditions, and the province always says it doesn't have the money and won't hike taxes up to pay for it.
This year is a predictable replay of the perennial deadlock.
The B.C. Liberals are busy writing a new law to send our teachers "back to work," not that they ever really stopped working, without a dime in new pay. We can't fault teachers for wanting a raise. Teaching is an atrociously undervalued profession, and giving young citizens the skills they need to become productive taxpayers is one of the most important things any government can do.
Yet we don't have the money. Some members of different unions will get modest raises this year due to contracts negotiated in previous years or agreements settled at the federal level. Teachers absolutely deserve more pay, but making that concession would compel Victoria to cough up similar money for every other public employee in the province whose contract is coming up for renegotiation.
This isn't the year to do that. Later years might be, and previous years definitely were. The unions could probably handle a cold year if it wasn't for the Liberals' unbending hostility. The reason this turned from negotiation to dispute to strike - and potentially a wildcat strike to come - is that the Liberals have never bargained in good faith. Those tornup contracts haven't been forgotten.
