When B.C.’s government suggested, recently, that its objective is a 10-year collective agreement with unionized teachers, many scoffed at that prospect. After all, the recent bargaining relationship between government and teachers has been fractious, to say the least.
Collective bargaining in the public school teachers’ context has been acrimonious and work slowdowns and stoppages of various kinds have become the norm. It seems, often, that the two parties are simply not speaking (or shouting, as the case may be) the same language.