FAIR or not, the B.C. Teachers Federation should take a lesson in public relations from its current, nasty predicament.
On Monday, the province's teachers will walk off the job in response to Victoria's latest bid to force them into a contract. Under the banner of Education Improvement, the Liberals have tabled a bill that will not only put an end to job action until September, but take questions of class size and increased funding off the table for 18 months. By any account, it's a resounding defeat for the federation.
It's unlikely, given the political climate, that the impasse could have ended happily for teachers, but it might have been somewhat improved had their union been better at spin.
Throughout this dispute, the BCTF has played into the government's hands as it shaped the issues for the public. The Liberals have portrayed the teachers as wanting to drain the public purse at a time when fiscal discipline is most needed, and the BCTF has done nothing to counter that, loudly demanding pay increases which, while perhaps deserved, are unrealistic.
Instead, regardless of what was actually on the table, the union should have spent every moment it had on television or in the papers screaming about class size. It's an issue that every parent, regardless of their views on compensation, could get fully behind.
When going head-to-head with a publicly funded spin machine, all that really matters is optics. It's a hard truth the teachers have to learn if they ever want to make real gains.
