At around 4:15 a.m. on Tuesday, the sun rose early on the long-running B.C. teachers’ strike, when bleary-eyed mediator Vince Ready announced to the media that a “tentative” deal had been struck.
Assuming the teachers ratify the deal at a vote on Thursday, every parent of school-aged children will breathe a huge sigh of relief.
And while we’d like to break out the champagne-coloured duotangs, we’d prefer to see the nuts and bolts of the agreement first.
Has the major bone of class size and composition — the number one issue for parents — been given any meat?
What kind of compensation package did the teachers actually get? Chances are it’s a thinner slice of the cake than they’d ordered — such is the nature of negotiations. But there is no justification for B.C. teachers to be among the lowest paid in the country.
And what, after more than three months of rhetoric, stand-offs and “let’s get back to the negotiating table” from both sides, exactly what was behind this dramatic turnaround in events over the last four days?
Was it really the prospect of Ready jetting off back East on Tuesday morning to referee someone else’s fight that expedited the “deal at dawn?”
There’s also speculation that the threat of losing international students played a role. It would be a sad state if the threat of losing foreign dollars takes precedence over quality education for Canadian kids, but, hey, it’s a global economy.
Just to be clear, we are pleased a deal was struck, but as with any contract, the devil’s in the detail — hence, we’re keeping the champagne on ice.
