Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-11-13, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, November 13 1985 Times Established 1873 _ Advocate Established 1881 Arnalg imated 1924 BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 • Ames Published Each' Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1:331 LORNE•EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager eNA CCM* BILL BATTEN kdilor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK IONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Seeing the world The navy may soon have trouble attracting recruits on the basis of its long -held promise of being a method to see the world. There's every indication that many potential candidates will think it better to become a politician to ac- complish the same experience. Certainly, former federal environ- ment minister Suzanne Blais-Grenier is going to make it tough on the navy who have to admit that there is a cer- tain degree of physical work and some comparatively harsh conditions to be 'encountered while enjoying the sight- seeing expeditions. Ms Blais-Grenier, on the other hand, has brought home the point that politicians go first class with little ' consideration to costs. If one -has a few spare days between engagements, it is possible to hire a luxury limousine and see the host country in style. The navy has rules about hav- ing your spouse tag along, but that doesn't apply to politicians. - There are those who have sug- gested that the Canadian taxpayers provided the former \cabinet minister with an all -expense paid holiday in Europe, given the -fact the event to which she was going had been cancell- ed and replaced with a few . minor Is it meetings in an attempt to make the jaunt appear worthwhile. To date, those opinions have not been refuted with any degree of believability and points out the need for realistic rules and disclosure per- taining to such trips. On a more local note, there was some concern expressed about the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority sending 16 delegates on the Association of Conservation Authorities sponsored Tennessee Valley tour. A Sarnia newspaper alluded to it being a ..`paid holiday" for delegates. That report, of course, was labell- etot misleading as the sptiruses of the delegates were included in the number attending, although it was never revealed whether those costs were from the public purse as well. However, the whole situation has apparently been recitified. The chair- man of the Association of Conserva- tion Authorities has urged' members to be more cautious in making statements to the press. The inference is that if you don't talk to the press, the public won't find out how their money is being spent. There's also the inference you'd rather not have the public know. Isn't that strange? essential service? The prolonged teachers' strikes in Wellington and Grey counties have again led to the question of whether teachers provide an essential service and should be denied the right to strike. A survey taken in conjunction with a debate on the issue on CFPL TV last week revealed that 86 percent of those responding felt that the right to strike s�iould be denied. ii A resolution from the Town of Durham, being circulated to municipal councils across the province, recommends that teachers and school hoards be bound by binding arbitration when agreements cannot be reached. It has been widely sup- ported although the actual percentage has not yet been detailed. Education Minister Sean Con- way is of the opinion that the cur- rent academic year is not yet in jeopardy for the students of the two counties: Clearly that is highly questionable. The students have lost about one-quarter of the normal teaching days and it ob- viously calls into question the merits of the system if it can be argued that such a loss of time does not jeopardize the entire year. However. that is not to say that the education of those students is totally jeopardized as the Durham resolution would sug- gest. It is a year lost only, nothing more. The education system already requires some students to -con- sider a year lost if they do not at- tain the necessary standards. But, neither does that suggest the total education experience is jeopardized. It is difficult to argue that teachers should be considered as providing an essential service that could have serious repercus- sions when withdrawn, par- ticularly over the short term. There is no danger to life involy- Batt'n Around with 1111kThe Editor ed. The economic impact is negligible to all but the teachers but obviously their lost buying power is offset by the increased buying power of the people who will not have to contribute tax dollars for teachers' salaries. Obviously, the plans and dreams of students will he held in abeyance, but that is basically a matter of a delay rather than any permanent Toss. There are social implications, of course. Animosities in the com- munities affected by long strikes and a loss of a scholastic year would increase, but probably lit- tle more than the height to which they have already reached in the two counties affected. Some students would perhaps withdraw from the system in favor of other pursuits under- taken during the lost year, but in some cases that may be to their advantage. Many others would only be delayed a year in com- pleting their formal education to join the growing ranks of those who preceded them and ended up unemployed anyway. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited %. iJ+.4tJI.•/IIID/.:,Jl.yill \ • e, Binding arbitration is not something that can be taken lightly or seen as an absolute and proper answer to any dispute. Settlements awarded are usually met with disatisfaction by one or other of the parties involv- ed, and sometimes even both. It can remove the impetus for fair and reasonable offers or demands at the outset of negotia- tions and arbitrators have been known to come up with some shocking settlements and more often in favor of the employee. The reality of the situation is that there is little sympathy for teachers in their current wage demands in most areas. Their average salary is around $42,000. which in the case of the two coun- ties presently affected, is said to be three times the average for the ratepayers who are footing the bill. Benefits and lengthy holidays add to the disparity het - ween teaching jobs and most others in the community. Teachers are backed by one of the most powerful unions in the province which again is in deep contrast to the powers of in- dividual boards. Teachers even use their bosses' kids as ransom to a considerable extent to win their demands. If the boards and ratepayers want to resolve the matter to their satisfaction, they can do so by continuing the teachers' right to strike and let them pound the pavement for as long as it takes to bring the teachers back to the classrooms under teams accep- table to their employers. The tail has been wagging the dog for long enough and it's time for some bold action to reverse the situation! "Of course I wouldn't know when I was well off —Inever WAS!" Going out on a ' There's nothing more ex- hilarating than going out on a limb. It begins when you're very lit- tle, when you eat a wormto see if he'll really stay alive inside you, or pick up a toad to see whether you'll wind up covered with warts. Later, it might be climbing out on a long, shaky tre limb over a deep pool, when you can't swim. Or it might be caught up in a tree, shirt stuffed with apples, while the voice of Geo. J. Jehovan thunders from beneath "Come down, ye little divils; I know yet.' up there and I'll whale the tar out of yez and the police'll put yez away fer life." Or it might be, about age 12, smoking butts with the hoboes in the "jungle" beside the railway'' tracks, and having a drunk with a gallon of wine come up and start terrifying you with all sorts of obscenities you don't understand. Or it might be, about 14 and spotted like a hyena with pimples,having to ask a girl to a party, knowing that you are the //on the thing that matters. Even most repulsive, awkward booby '' at 20, I was climbing out on a in town. This is a rotten limb to limb, trying desperately to make be out on. the grade as a fighter pilot, It could be saying, "Don't you say that about m5 mother!" to the bully of your age and sailing into him, yourself outweighed 20 pounds, but your fists and feet and teeth going like a windmill. Or it could be a swimmingly ex- hilarating moment, like the day when I was in high school and kissed my French teacher up in an apple tree. She was a spinster and six years older than I, but if I recall, it was a swooning ex - Sugar &Spice Dispensed by Smiley perience and I think we both wound up hanging by our knees from the limb. These are some of the limbs I've been out on. Lots of other limbs. You've had yours; round limbs, crooked limbs, rotten limbs, smooth ones, brittle limbs, sturdy ones. We have all gone out on a limb. When you're young, you don't really know the difference, or you just don't care. It's climbing out sweating blood so that I could climb out onthefragile wing of a Spitfire and be killed. What an irony! Those who didn't make it were broken-hearted. And then there's the limb of marriage. Most males will climb Eager beavers Last week I wrote an article about the gradual change in the number of jobs available for young people coming into the teaching profession. The trend is becoming more favourable for them as more and more people already in the profession reach retirement age and as the school population tends to stabilize more. It would seem that the same trend is true in the business world •as the recession becomes a little dimmer in employers' minds and they become a little braver about expanding. A friend of mine says that there is a desperate need for skilled workers in his machine shop, something that was not true just a few years ago. I still have the feeling though that it is the `eager beavers' who are getting the jobs that are available. Let me give you an example. Since the first of the year I have By the Way by Syd Fletcher had about two dozen young peo- ple come into my office, all of them well qualified as teachers, all looking for supply work, that is, filling in for teachers who are limb out on the first limb that is en- dowed with long eyelashes or trim ankles or a big bust. Even though they know it's a very green one, or a very brittle -one, out they go. I was lucky. The limb I climb- ed out on was firm but yielding, green but not brittle: And I damn soon discovered that when you climbed out on that particular limb, you didn't carry a saw, but a parachute and an iron -bound alibi. Howeyer, what 1 started out to say was that, as we get older, we climb out on shorter and shorter, safer and safer limbs, until we are finally left, clutching the tree - trunk, even though we're only two feet off the ground. The old limbs (or the young limbs) creaked and swayed and cracked and dipped. They are replaced by the limbs of safety and conformity and security and enough life insurance. And the sad part is that these are the limbs we want our children to climb out on, no far- ther the two feet from the trunk and no higher that two feet from the ground. While they want to climb on the swinging limbs that will sail them to the skies or break and let them fall. All this or course, is a pream- ble to the fact that I'm. still will- ing to go out on a limb. If somebody will fetch a step -ladder to help me get started up the tree. win ill. To each one I say that since teachers may, and usually do, call their own supply person, that it is a good idea to come into the school as a volunteer for the odd day here or there until people know their faces. Then the teachers will probably think of them when they are ill. Now 1 realize that volunteering wages are not very high. In fact, you would starve on them. At the same time, of those two dozen young persons, only one bothered to come in. Interestingly enough, that young lady has already had quite a number of supply teaching days, and has had a temporary job offered to her in January. I wonder how the other twenty- three are doing?