A rchive Date
[ 20-01-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/waugh.html
Tories did it to themselves
By NEIL WAUGH -- Edmonton Sun
January 20, 2002
There's one thing certain as the Alberta teachers strike inches closer to reality: Ralph Klein is no Ronald Reagan. Far from it. Not even close.
The former U.S. Republican president set the tone of his first term in the White House by taking on a belligerent union that thought they had the government where they wanted it. And he fired the lot of them. Critics said busting a union as essential as air traffic controllers would throw the skies over the big U.S. airports into chaos. Guess what? It never happened.
Klein has a similar opportunity to exercise the kind of dynamic leadership which has more or less left his administration since the heady days of the Ralph Revolution in the mid-'90s.
Last week Alberta Teachers' Association president Larry Booi announced his "recommended co-ordinated" strike date as Feb. 4. Whether this is the ATA finally going on the offensive despite threats for many months, or Booi's subtle attempt to delay a test of union solidarity, is, of course, the question.
Saying you're having a strike is a lot easier than actually walking off the job.
Before Booi actually set the target date two weeks down the road, Klein said he was looking at making teaching school kids an essential service, and taking away the ATA's right to strike.
If hospital laundry workers and government secretaries are fundamental to keeping the province functioning - and are prevented from striking - surely teachers are in the same boat.
Learning Minister Lyle Oberg is clearly on his boss's wavelength.
"I think providing education for Alberta's children is extremely essential," he spat.
If Booi actually takes teachers out on strike, Oberg made this vow: "I will guarantee it will not affect the school year for our kids. That would be extremely damaging."
The only problem is, changing the legislation takes time - three weeks, but more likely four, if the opposition kicks up a major fuss. And from the way ND Leader Raj Pannu (a former university teacher collecting a pension) and Liberal education critic Don Massey (same deal as Pannu) were pumping the ATA's cause last week, it won't be easy.
If Klein had kept with the same fiscally conservative philosophy that made him Canada's most dynamic politician back in his first term, taking the right to strike away from teachers might have been a lot easier.
Right now there appears to be a bitter ideological and philosophical battle taking place in Klein's cabinet and caucus that pits old-time big government Tories like Gary Mar, Dave Hancock and Ken Kowalski against fiscally responsible cabinet ministers like Oberg, who served his political apprenticeship as a member of the watchdog backbench group called the Deep Six. This division in Klein's ranks was being exploited by Booi last week.
"What we are calling for all along is fairness," Booi said. "If you are giving other groups in the province 22%, if you are giving yourself 17%, surely fairness comes into it."
Oberg was once again pleading poverty following the dramatic slump in energy prices and the drop in provincial revenues as a result.
"The surplus that we were looking at in the second quarter was $12 billion compared to that of a year ago which was $7 billion."
And the 4% this year plus another 2% next year (add another 3% that Oberg tossed on the table last week) will make Alberta teachers the highest-paid in the country.
That argument would have stuck if Health Minister Mar hadn't eroded it by awarding massive settlements to doctors and nurses last winter; and if Justice Minister Hancock didn't reward government lawyers almost as handsomely days after the government brought in tough austerity measures; and if house Speaker Kowalski hadn't showered MLAs with three raises amounting to 17% in one year.
And that's where Klein's problem lies. None of these politicians did this without the prior approval of the boss. Yet Oberg is trying to talk tough to teachers while doctors, nurses, lawyers and the MLAs themselves have cashed in. Oberg denies there is a split in the government.
"What we're talking about is an economic reality," he said. But it's going to be hard to hammer teachers when spenders like Mar, Hancock and Kowalski are in the PC caucus.
It just doesn't add up.
Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@edm.sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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