Parents will reflect sadly on the Premier’s earnest assertion that she is frustrated by the continuing elementary school conflict. No doubt she is, but people also know she is the leader of a political party. The Premier is well aware that if the government were to order the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) back to work the Liberals would face the wrath of this enormous province-wide union at the next election. The ETFO and its high school counterpart are not what politicians expected when they granted teachers the right to strike. The 1960s saw a well-intentioned spirit of fairness towards teachers In return the province now deals with unions that hold the school system hostage from the Lakehead to Niagara Falls. The teachers unions wield more power more disruptively than any union since the postal workers were put out of business by email. Sam Hammond, the head of the ETFO, is perhaps the most consistently belligerent union president in the history of Ontario public school education. His politics are about power too. He wants to keep his union in shape to beat up anyone who gets in its way. Many teachers dislike the union but they are intimidated into silence.
