Editor:
I empathize with Delta Teachers' Association president Paul Steer. As a former teacher and education negotiator over the span of 18 years "back in the day," I get it that teachers face futility at the bargaining table.
Although Bill Vander Zalm's Socreds gave them the right to strike, the Campbell Liberals took away the strike/lockout option by declaring their work "essential" to the health and welfare of the province. Possibly a misguided thought, it's nevertheless the way it is.
And because - in my opinion - teachers rightly lost access to compulsory binding arbitration to resolve their pay beefs, they find themselves in legal and existential purgatory.
Still, as numerous wags have noted about this epoch of economic volatility, just keeping your job is the new "raise." Most in the commentariat have urged there's a time to quietly stifle one's tears over the state of their current exchequer balance.
So as one who earned tens of thousands more in salary and pension than the blue and pink and white collar folks I worked alongside in the public education system for nearly two decades, I'm here to suggest that time might be now. Do you think?
W. Baird Blackstone
