Canada

I'm really torn on this one. I understand both sides of the fence on the dispute - I used to be a fully accredited AB teacher and at that time our school was not part of the Teacher's Union, so we worked for considerably lower salaries than the unionized teachers. Which was inherently unfair.

But we also had a very strong relationship with our board and we understood the reasons for our low pay so there was direct communication and a very strong agreement that we were all in this together and the money just wasn't there to do any better on our salaries.

Now teachers (including those at my old school) are unionized and much better paid and have considerably better benefits. That's fair.

But at the same time, I'm still not a huge fan of the unions. I do think the government did try to meet the teacher's demands as best they could given the current economic situation and staring down a 6 billion deficit. They have promised 90 new schools, 3000 new teachers, a 12% increase to every teacher and up to 17% for those who were in lower paid divisions. It's not chicken feed.

On the other hand using the NWC to end the strike AND impose massive fines for violators AND making any further strike action illegal for another four years feels like a union busting move. I'm not thrilled about that even if I'm not pro union. It seems like overkill and a taunt to other unions to go out on wildcat strikes. Very tense times ahead.

I feel for the teachers in the middle of all this tension. They are getting a raise but quite a few of them are going back disgruntled. There will be considerable tensions among staff as not all teachers are pro union and those who are just happy to be back at work aren't likely to speak up. It's still pretty messy all around.