Chalkboards and Spin Doctors

Around 51,000 teachers in Alberta aren't in the classroom today. It's the first day of a strike that could go on for awhile.

I'm sure parents with kids in school are hoping for a quick end to the strike, but I hope this time around the teachers don't get bullied and don't settle for less than they should get.

Strike and Spin

When a labour dispute takes place, especially one in the public sector, there are orchestrated public relations campaigns in the background. Governments and labour unions try to get the support of the public in an effort not to get blamed for the strike and ensuing inconvenience to the public/parents/students/taxpayers/voters.

It was happening for weeks leading up to the teachers strike in Alberta. Every message from Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet ministers brought the same themes and even the same words “We’ve made a really good offer to the teachers. We’ve offered everything they asked for. We don’t understand why they didn’t accept it. We’re willing to sit down at any time and negotiate because we’re really close to an agreement.”

The Alberta Teachers Association has consistently responded with messaging that includes “Teachers just want a fair wage. Just as important though are classroom sizes and the government needs to address that. Teachers are under a huge amount of stress in today’s classrooms and the government doesn’t seem to respect teachers for the work they do.”

If you think the two sides haven’t been fighting in the court of public opinion, you haven’t been paying attention.

Last week the government offered to pay parents $150 a week to cover additional costs they may face in a strike. How the government will determine whether anyone’s expenses are valid is another question because once again it’s part of the PR campaign. Let’s not worry about details here. Just like election time, the best strategy is to pay off people with their own money. I’m sure teachers are wondering why they’re not being offered more money too. Maybe there would be no need to pay parents?

By the way, the government campaign got a kick in the nether region when the Executive Director of the Premier’s Office and former broadcaster Bruce McCallister suggested the parents of a student should have spanked him after he wanted to talk about the teacher’s strike at a public meeting.

Not a good time for a stupid comment in the middle of a PR campaign.

Class Size or Cash?

This labour dispute has a real twist from most others. The two sides have been fighting about class size and the only real way to deal with that is to hire more teachers.

The government says it has offered to hire 3,000 new teachers over the next few years, but it’s also got another PR message out quite clearly. Even the Premier said the teachers can’t have it both ways. Either they get a nice pay raise, or the government can hire more teachers to deal with classroom size issues. They can’t have both.

Why not?

This PR narrative has snuck into the dispute for reasons I can’t understand. Why should teachers take less money so the government can hire more teachers? Isn’t staffing any public institution the job of the government and not the workers?

The two issues should not be connected, The government should pay for enough teachers to provide a good education for students and teachers should be paid a fair wage to teach them.

To me, the government’s position doesn’t make sense. It’s like a parent telling their six-year-old “I have enough money to give you food, or you can have new clothes to wear to school, but you can’t have both, so take your pick.” Isn’t it the job of every parent to provide for their child?

Why should teachers take less for the government to properly staff the education system?

Strike Messaging 101

Full disclose here – my oldest son is a teacher in the public system in Edmonton. My opinions about this strike would be the same though.

I hope the teachers get what they’re after in this dispute. One PR talking point the union should be hitting harder, in my opinion, is that since 2012 teachers have gone more than half the time without an annual pay increase. Since that time their pay has gone up by about six percent. Inflation has gone up by far more than 20% during that same period of time. Maybe the teacher’s union is embarrassed to mention it has settled for so little?

Teachers have taken one for the team too often. I hope this time they’re more selfish and hold out for what they’re after and not get bullied like Educational Assistants were earlier this year by the government.

The government’s message about education over the last several years has been more money has been put into the education system each year. It should be enough. That’s the PR message. Unfortunately, because of massive growth in Alberta, the biggest single issue is that government funding has not kept up with increases in the student population, or complexities in the classroom. Teachers, educational assistants and others have far more on their plate then they can handle because the system is bursting at the seams.

The strike is on, but the PR campaigns started a long time ago.

Photo credit: Sean Amato @JSJamato (The photo is actually from a health care union rally in Edmonton, but the reference to the McCallister comment was too good to pass on.)