Solidarity Forever

The elementary teachers of Ontario have voted to go on strike.

If this were a real bargaining process, the government would have a simple solution. If they will not come in to work, fire them and hire replacements. A recent Ed School grad told me it takes seven years for newly-qualified teachers in Ontario to find a steady teaching job. There is an obvious oversupply; the teachers have no bargaining power in the normal sense.

Fire and rehire, and the government saves a lot of money immediately: the new hires will be at the bottom of the seniority pay scale. Will the new teachers be worse at the job? Probably not—teachers are promoted on sheer seniority, not on competence.

On top of that, the evidence is strong that even having a B. Ed. does not produce any better results with students. Actually, worse results. This stands to reason: anyone who has competed high school has had a twelve year apprenticeship in what works and does not work in the classroom. Are they likely to learn anything new of any value in a year at Teacher’s College?

Just the reverse; in order to have something to teach, the Ed Schools more or less must inculcate their acolytes with new techniques and ideas nobody has used in a classroom they have learned in. And there almost has to be a good reason why nobody will have used a technique before.

Hiring anyone with any Bachelor’s degree ought to work better.

Collective bargaining between two groups of civil servants is, in sum, all a pantomime. Nobody has their own money at risk. Both sides benefit by caving in to all union demands.

But for oversight from politicians.

Why doesn’t the government just do what Reagan did in the Eighties when the US air traffic controllers went out? He fired them all—ending an era of constant strikes by civil servants.

The government will not do it because there are too many teachers, and they are too well organized. Politicos fear their electoral power, and their ability to generate bad PR through their class allies in the media. That, and class solidarity. Broadly, teachers belong to the same professional class as do politicians.

It might be worth doing for a Tory government. After all, the teachers’ unions are all in for the NDP in any case.