Let’s Hope That School Support Workers Are Back To Work On Monday

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  • Thank you for your reply.
    I think that during the strike educational support workers have proven themselves to be essential to the delivery of educational services to children with disabilities.
    To be clear, I believe in the right of labour and management to bargain. I also believe in the right of management to manage its workforce (in the case of government a real shortcoming from my perspective). I also believe in the covenant between Government and it citizens to deliver services to all of its citizens in a manner that does not discriminate based on gender, age, race, sexual orientation, disability, etc….
    These labour negotiations have been a failure on so many levels (and in particular an abject failure of leadership) that has gotten us to absolutely the wrong place with our “essential” educational assistants feeling under valued and disrespected, our most vulnerable students being discriminated against, many families in crisis with no hope for the future, and that part of our educational system that supports the most vulnerable in shambles and without a plan.
    As the stewards and managers of the “grand bargain” on behalf of the people of Nova Scotia, our political leaders should never have let us slow walk into this crisis. While negotiation should always be preferred to legislating people back to work, we need to acknowledge when it fails to achieve the right result for our community. In retrospect, I think we would all be in a better place had we declared these workers essential and validated the value of the work they do and then let an arbitrator determine fair wages. This was never about holding the line on prudent fiscal management. Failing to successfully conclude a negotiation comes with political risks for both the union and the Government employer and its political leaders. This situation required courageous leadership in the face of failure – unfortunately we haven’t seen it.
    My real concern is that the Government’s poor performance in managing these labour relations will have long-term negative consequences for that part of the educational system that children like our daughter and families like mine rely on for not just education, but also the many other supports and services that are delivered through the education system. Let’s hope I am wrong in my assessment and my concern is misplaced.

    Ian Sutherland | June 18, 2023 | Reply

  • I read your opinion piece with interest this morning as I do most Saturdays as I often find it to be well balanced and occasionally useful insight into the partisan Conservative/ Progressive Conservative perspective on the issues facing our community. Today’s article was a clear example of the latter and underscores that this Government continues to view the discriminatory exclusion of our most vulnerable children from school on the basis of disability as a labour issue to be managed as opposed to a failure in the delivery of service – in this instance playing out in a most discriminatory way.
    As the parent of a child with profound autism who has been excluded from school for over 5 weeks, your perspective, which I understand to represent the Government’s perspective, was particularly disappointing to read.
    More disappointing was your suggestion that people with disabilities and the families who support them who have been impacted by the strike have simply been co-opted as part of CUPE’s tactics, implying that these families can have no independent position on this matter and the negative impact it is having on not only their families, but also the hard fought progress we have made as a society to make our communities more inclusive.
    Your positioning of the voices of the disabilities community in your piece, is also illustrative of a society that views people with disabilities with indifference and as “less than” – less deserving of their respect and less deserving of the services that are offered freely and without reservation offered to all other members of our community.
    While I appreciate that it might be difficult for a former candidate for the leadership of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives to conceive of considering these issues outside of the big “P” Political positions of our parties, this kind of dismissal of diverse voices also does a disservice to our democracy and it institutions.
    I would have expected a more thoughtful piece from you.

    Ian Sutherland | June 17, 2023 | Reply

    • Ian thank you for your note.

      I strive to be apolitical in my articles. I can send you lots of examples praising some of the McNeil government’s choices, and others criticizing the Houston government.

      The impact of the strike on families like yours is very regrettable and the article would have been better if I had said so. Would you recommend that the workers supporting children like your son be deemed as essential services during labour disruptions?

      Bill

      Bill | June 17, 2023 | Reply