This past week we witnessed the end to two major labour disputes that have generated headlines across the province since the fall.
Ontario’s public school teachers had two-year contracts imposed on them by education minister Laurel Broten on Jan. 3, and three days later National Hockey League players and owners finally came to a new agreement, ending a 113-day lockout.
The two disputes, and their respective conclusions, had very little in common, but those of us living and working in the real world can’t help but feel both were avoidable.
One look at the deal signed between NHL owners and the players’ association leaves even the most casual fan wondering why this exact deal could not have been signed in October. Instead, millionaire players squared off against billionaire owners in a three-month battle not unlike two kids fighting in a sandbox, with neither willing to budge, convinced their way was the only way.
In the previous NHL lockout, which cancelled the entire 2004-05 season, we tended to side with the owners, but this time around it was hard to do that, considering the league’s habit of double talk.
Throughout the previous contract, commissioner Gary Bettman repeatedly boasted about the league’s success and the health of all 30 of its franchises, despite obvious signs that up to a third of NHL teams were losing money, and a handful were in dire financial straits. Then, all of a sudden, once it was time to negotiate a new contract, Bettman and the league insisted the past structure was broken and there was no way the league could continue under that type of a deal.
Yet it was also hard to side with the players, when their representatives were bickering over details of pensions for players, many of whom will be multi-millionaires before they hit age 25.
In the end, both sides made some concessions, but their failure to do so months earlier has only hurt the game. Canadian fans, while feeling slighted, will return in droves. But for a league bent on growing the game in non-traditional hockey markets in the U.S., and with up to a third of its franchises already losing money, this lockout may have caused irreparable damage.
When it comes to the damage caused in the dispute between the provincial government and Ontario’s teachers, it’s easy to see students are the only real losers.
We equate the relationship between the Ontario Liberals and teachers unions to that of a misguided parent and a spoiled child. For nearly a decade the Liberals rolled over for the teachers’ unions, basically giving them whatever they wanted, with no eye for financial consequences. In return the teachers unions shamelessly shilled for the Liberals, helping to elect Dalton McGuinty three times (we all know how that worked out for the rest of us).
Eventually there is no more money, leaving the spoiled child upset they are being cut off, and the parent, just as much to blame for the situation, with little choice but to impose cost-saving measures, however unpopular.
Teachers and their unions claim it’s not about money, but if history has taught us anything, it’s always about money. If teachers had no problem with wage freezes and reduced sick days, as they claim, then all unions should have been able to sign a new deal before the Dec. 31 deadline, just as the Catholic union, local high school teachers and several other groups did.
But it’s hard for the average person not to also be frustrated with the government, which equally shares the blame for the current debacle.
Broten only made matters worse when she claimed she will repeal Bill 115 – after using its powers to enforce contracts and declare strikes illegal – “as a sign of good faith and our commitment to future negotiations.” That is a ludicrous statement. The damage, if only in the eyes of teachers, is already done.
It appears teachers will continue to withhold extracurricular activities, a practice that unquestionably hurts students. When faced with this obvious fact, teachers (in what appears to be an obvious speaking point provided by their unions) counter that they are teaching students to stick up for their rights. But truthfully, the real lesson learned by students is that when they are involved in a dispute, it is okay to take their frustrations out on innocent bystanders.
We find it sadly ironic that in the current anti-bullying culture, everyone involved has resorted to bullying as their modus operandi.
The government bullies unions by enforcing contracts on them, unions bully teachers by dictating what they can and can’t do or say (and threatening financial penalties or “naming and shaming” them if they don’t comply), and teachers bully students by taking away their extracurricular activities.
It’s a fine example everyone is setting for our impressionable young students.
