By ALF STENBERG

THI :
a Period of dramatic labor
groups Pegciets are one of the
Med the: at have drastically trans-
ne pee “image”,
le “ena Strikes in Quebec, with
a Tative declarations of soli-
a teachers associations
4 Cuntry, have placed teach-
y militant alongside other tradition-
| 8anized ¢ froups in the ranks of
} Mahsformatce Unionists. This painful
t the ae has been the product
“Gifficuty; c y Complex and deep-seated
' ear ar Madequacies that are
the perpetual crisis in

| diate publi the one gaining imme-
a a ae is that of in-
P*fac : trong action b
Shortao aaaee led with Sen eather
‘ pecnent Substantial wage
through east in the late 1940s
rage j € 1950s. Teachers won
.©~ Increase of 16.8 percent in
weg had consistent-
ney Teases through the
militan five percent).
sDatah t action gave way to
hoo} ye let's get along with
ro ard” approaches. In a

eachere, Negotiations Saskatche-
r

50s ( annual

Mab Has
q etter mood” in sub-

a yea

ara es 's. Such collaborationist

“Cling in Be turally led to a serious

andards for teachers sala-

i yy. BY A. MANN

t .

ee return to the class-
Na breaking eb. 20, due to the strike-
Q tionale ©. Character of the Union
c teach mment’s Bill 25,’ the
Wont! ie, Struggle for profes-
king cond; igher salaries, better
| Ationgt Itions and improved edu-
ds has entered another

The
I] Close cpeesent Plan is
tion ,¢ OPEratio
of nN and the determina-

as et
Protes “achers, Catholics as well
» together with aroused

marked by the

] U
tI Crate t ae trade unionists, to
This Ure of ae and undemo-
Str. 1S .
é one th meportant, for it demon-
HP ing Oo] and € links forged between
A y;, the White potestant teachers dur-
// WoglsSKa ss heat of the two-month
i] the 2 Montreal, Catholic, the five-
tho); "e-mont i Tench Catholic, and
ot akeshore English Ca-

Sg 89, €achere
lu ers 7
Stra” Strikes are strong

ig ell to

if tion 8 of twa PPort the weight and
al syct a Cultures and two educa-

il) 52° dramat;
l 9 ees teacher reaction to
4S throppe2ved when 60,000
# ing . © der shout the province de-
/ € government by hold-
ie pudy. Session on Feb.
Tovincial Association
to 4, Making ite ees of Quebec has
ff op '* Bi kn S views and oppositior
j apn through the medium
'n the daily press. This

hers

Paiq :

ries. While the cost of living has risen
sharply in recent years, teachers sala-
ries have simply not kept pace.

There are strong forces tending to
promote complacency and conservatism
among teachers. Not least of these is
the welter of mythology around the
concept that “teaching is a profes-
sion.” Exponents of this concept would
like to see teaching looked on in the
same light as the more middle class
professions of law and medicine. They
would ignore the fact that teachers
are salaried employees and must-pro-
tect their interests as such. Teachers
are discovering that there is nothing
as demeaning to their ‘professional
status” as sub-standard incomes and
consequent poorer living conditions.

Teachers are workers and they are go--

ing to have to act like workers to get
by in this system.

Another problem is the apparent con-
flict of interests between the teach-
ers and the rest of the community.
Higher teachers salaries are made to
appear to the average citizen as mean-
ing higher taxes. Teachers are natural-
ly reluctant to press for higher salaries
when this will mean adding to the al-
ready intolerable burden on the over-
taxed homeowner. But teachers are
also beginning to realize that they must
not let themselves be sold short in or-
der to pay for the failure of timid and
complacent local school boards to get
adequate financial aid from the senior
government for our public school sys-
tem.

Another not insignificant factor is

action will help to keep the general
public informed.

Also, something new has been added
to the provincial scene with the forma-
tion of a coordinating council, compos-
ed of six groups of French and English
parents together with Catholic and
Protestant teachers associations, in

TEACHERS and UNIONISM

Cold hard facts of economic life
are forcing changes in attitude

the high proportion of women in our
teaching force. For a wide variety of
reasons they have tended to be a rather
conservative force, although this too
seems to be changing. '

But teacher unionism seem to be
gaining ground. In the United States,
increasing numbers of teachers are or-
ganized directly into teachers unions
affiliated with the CIO. In Canada,
teachers have traditionally been organ-
ized in province-wide associations, but
have looked askance. at trade union
tactics as unbecoming of their profes-
sion. Many of these provincial associa-
tions stand officially opposed to the
strike weapon.

In most provinces teachers do not
have the legal right to strike. Teachers
in Alberta have long had the strike
weapon, but have used it only occas-
sionally — and then only in small, local
strikes. Teachers in Quebec have made
increasing use of “study sessions” as
a means of avoiding the ban on teach-
ers’ strikes there, until the Quebet
government granted them the right to
strike this past year.

The cold hard facts of Canadian
economic life are forcing changes in
teacher attitudes. The meek may in-
herit the earth, but they don’t do so
well when it comes to salary nego-
tiations.

Since 1960 Canadian teachers have
never averaged an annual increase of
more than five percent (only 2.4% in
1962-63). At a time when Central
Mortgage and Housing Administration
officials state that families must earn

order to have a common spokesman
for educational matters in the province.

Among the trade unionists, the Poli-
tical Education Committee of the
Montreal Labor Council, together with
the Political Education Committee of
the Quebec Federation of Labor, is
holding a two-day seminar in Montreal

\EARD BURNER’

over $8,000 per year in order to be
able to buy their own home, teachers
salaries in Canada still average barely
$5,000.

The situation in the Maritimes is
particularly acute, with salaries in
some provinces averaging under $3,000
a year for primary teachers. Is it any
wonder that over half the teachers in
Newfoundland, Prince Erward Island
and New Brunswick still do not have
even the minimum qualifications for
certification? :

Conditions in Quebec have been no-
torious. The parochialism of the Ca-
tholic church and the semi-feudalism of
the Duplesis era tended to keep
Quebec a low wage region. Teaching
was no exception. One of the pre-con-
ditions for the not so quiet revolution
in Quebec is a vastly improved educa-
tional system. This in turn demands
better trained and better paid teach-
ers. Thus the recent explosions among
Quebec teachers.

But the pace set by Quebec teach-
ers seems to be only the beginning.
Teachers across the country are nego-
tiating for substantial increases 15
percent and more in Metro Toronto)
and are talking of strikes and mass
resignations to back up their demands.

Privately, at least, many teachers’
association officials will abandon the
stance of phony professionalism and
tacitly admit that the primary role of
the associations must be that of a
teachers’ union.

The change bodes well for teachers
and for education.

‘Quebec fight against Bill 25 continues

on April 8 and 9 to study ways and
means of combating this threat to
education.

The ‘Confederation of National Trade
Unions has formed political action
committees in every county in the
province, with the aim (of bringing
pressure on the representatives to the
Quebec Legislative Assembly.

This action by the trade unions and
teachers is most important at the pre-
sent time, not only for the teaching
profession but for the Quebec working
class as a whole. The reason for this
is that Premier Johnson’s administra-
tion feels it has scored a victory in the
way it curbed teachers’ rights. On top
of this Montreal’s white-collar work-
ers, after a five-week strike, were -
forced to accept a settlement that was
very close to what the Montreal city
Officials offered in the very beginning
as the “last and final” offer.

This will no doubt encourage the
Union Nationale government to impose
the same conditions on large sections
of the working class, particularly the
Quebec civil servants whose contract
expires sometime in May.

Many observers feel that in failing
to call a general strike after Bill 25 be-
came law, both the CNTU and QFL
not only lost a fine opportunity to
directly aid the teachers but also failed
to grasp the political significance of
trying to topple the Johnson adminis-
tration, which where labor is concern-

‘remains Dupplesis-oriented.

April 14, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5