If process isn’t sustainable, we can be critical

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/03/2016 (3743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a letter to the editor today, Norm Gould, president of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, takes issue with a recent Brandon Sun editorial that suggested teacher salaries in the Brandon School Division were a tad excessive.

As we noted, salaries account for about 85 per cent of the school division’s budget. While Gould asserts that teacher salaries only make up about 50 per cent of an average school division’s budget, the amount that we pay teachers to educate our children remains a major cost.

Gould also notes correctly that salaries for teachers and other organized workers are, “almost without exception, freely negotiated between their unions and the BSD — both of whom are active participants in the process.”

That was precisely the point we were trying to argue. If Brandon school trustees are stuck in an echo chamber during division meetings, and only hearing applause for raising taxes and increasing the division budget, nothing changes. If trustees can’t stand up and say “you’re asking for too much” and take a stand, then the system is flawed, if not broken.

Mr. Gould is dreadfully wrong in suggesting that the salary process for teachers is by negotiation alone, and not compulsion. And we’re hardly the only news organization suggesting that arbitration — and the threat of arbitration should negotiations stall — is a deterrent to keeping salaries in check.

Here is an excerpt from our sister newspaper, The Winnipeg Free Press, dated Sept. 3, 2015:

“Teachers (in Manitoba) are the highest paid in Canada, next to Alberta, a C.D. Howe Institute analysis shows. Further, their pensions are the richest — teachers here pay less into their plans and can retire earlier — among the six largest provinces compared in the survey …

“The tab from school divisions, which levy taxes on property, keeps rising and surpasses the tax bite of municipalities in many cases.

“Yet, over the decades, the results of cross-country tests and of international assessments conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development show Manitoba students slipping further and further behind. Manitoba’s scores in math, English and science are the lowest in the country, next to P.E.I.

“There are some important points to draw from the survey. First, as the author, economics professor David Johnson, notes, it dispels the argument paying teachers more money produces academic results from students. A number of studies have purportedly set out such proof, and teachers’ unions have picked up the argument.

“Second, why are Manitoba teachers pulling in some of the best salaries in Canada? Prof. Johnson points out two possible factors: 1) Manitoba is alone in bargaining on a division by division basis; the other provinces bargain centrally. 2) Manitoba is alone in its binding arbitration provision, which forbids teachers to strike …

“The NDP government, with its natural affinity for unionized workers, has benefitted politically from the Manitoba Teachers’ Society’s support. The government, not surprisingly, has refused to play hardball with those unions, despite demands it move to take over bargaining provincewide and phase out school boards’ taxation power.”

We do not begrudge Manitoba teachers from making a strong living wage, but no unionized position that is paid for with government cash should be without fair scrutiny. And the current system under the NDP government has not allowed taxpayers to catch their breath.

Last May, we reported that Brandon teachers would see a nine per cent pay increase over four years.

After nearly a year without a contract, a collective agreement was finalized at that time and included the 2014-15 school year. The agreement gave teachers a two per cent increase in each of the first three years, followed by hikes of 1.5 per cent in September 2017 and January 2018. The contract expires June 30, 2018.

That is higher than Manitoba’s annual rate of inflation. It’s also noteworthy that all teacher contracts in the province expired on June 30, 2014, and about two-fifths of school divisions have new deals for essentially the same percentages.

As Free Press education reporter Nick Martin noted last year, if that rate of increase continues, nearly every experienced teacher in Manitoba will be making a six-figure salary five or six years from now.

This is not about scapegoating teachers or trying to take away supports for our students. This is about criticizing a process that is simply not sustainable for the long term.