Students are back in school and teachers in the classroom but just because the fire is out, doesn't mean the smoke (and mirrors) have cleared. Only two things are more frustrating than the inconvenience, disruption and cost of public sector illegal strikes: the lack of accurate information that flows to the public at large and the absolute inability for the public to hold the unions accountable. The recent illegal picketing by the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) is a case in point.

A cursory review of any the news coverage of the dispute and a reasonable person would reach a few conclusions. First, class sizes in British Columbia are wildly large in the range of 40 students. Second, classes generally have half a dozen special needs students with absolutely no help. Third, teachers don't care about money. Fourth, this government is a bunch of bullies and they are picking on teachers and haven't even tried to negotiate a collective agreement. But none of these conclusions have an ounce of truth or have any basis in reality. They are however, the main talking points trumpeted by the BCTF's leadership.

Let's start with the first point, BC's classes are enormous. Well, the head of the BCTF, Jinny Sims revealed how inaccurate that statement was when she attended the first learning roundtable that the government hosted. She had no facts to back up that claim, not even anecdotal evidence. In fact, during the past four years student enrollment in BC has dropped by 30,000 while education funding has skyrocketed. Furthermore, the BCTF has failed to provide one single piece of evidence that shows class size impacts negatively on educational outcomes. Yet, the government has now agreed to start measuring class sizes and publishing the results.

If class size has yet to be accurately measured and reported, so too has class composition. This is not to argue that size and composition are not issues that should be addressed. But the fact that the BCTF cannot bring forth any actual evidence of its supposed prime complaints should set off warning bells about what this strike was actually about. Both points were put forth by the BCTF because it appealed to the public's sense of empathy. Our sense of fairness was used and abused to shield the BCTF's prime motivation, which is wages.

In fact, in September of this year, the head of the BCTF conceded that teachers were willing to look at class size and composition outside of the collective bargaining process. If that's the case, what, pray tell, was this illegal strike about Wages and benefits. Full stop.

The BCTF has never successfully negotiated a collective agreement, not with the Liberals and not even with the NDP. The union has a history of militancy and ridiculous demands that even other labour leaders couldn't stand behind. The last legislated agreement was in 2002 and included two consecutive raises of 7.5% per year and a wage freeze for the third.

That agreement expired in June 2004. Since then, the provincial government set out a wage mandate of net zero. After accepting a pay cut themselves, the government asked public sector employees to work within a net zero mandate. That meant benefits could be rolled back for a wage increase. It worked and over 130 agreements were successfully negotiated under that mandate. In the case of the BCTF, they said no, they would not accept those conditions. The same conditions that everyone else has accepted, this union said no.

In fact, the government met with the BCTF at 35 negotiating tables and the union failed to move one formal demand, instead they childishly whined that they want the same as Alberta teachers. Well, we all want the same as Alberta but we have a $36 billion debt and more than half of our provincial budget is already in public sector wages. In fact, each 1% increase in the government's wage mandate costs $160 million a year! Compensation is the biggest driver of spending and higher taxes.

The BCTF were fined a half million dollars and rightly so, they broke the law. Jinny Sims, is no Rosa Parks and yes that's the language used by the BCTF to gain public sympathy. Indeed, Ms. Parks would have gladly stood up and defended her actions and accepted the consequences of those actions. Many parents and students contacted the CTF's office during those eleven illegal striking days angry and upset that they could not hold the union responsible for their actions.

The CTF responded and offered to co-ordinate a class action suit against the BCTF to hold them accountable for their actions and the impact they had on the province. If the BCTF refuses to respect the will of the democratically elected legislature, than they will have to face parents and students in the courtroom!