CBC: Government accused of anti-female bias

A political science professor at Simon Fraser University says the Campbell government has an abysmal record in its dealings with female-dominated trade unions, including the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.

Women currently make up about 70 per cent of the BCTF membership who have been out on strike for the past two weeks.

Marjorie Griffen-Cohen, who teaches women’s studies and political science at SFU, notes this isn’t the first time the Campbell government has tangled with a female-dominated union.

She points to the fight with the Hospital Employees’ Union over the past few years as an illustration of the government’s real attitude toward women workers.

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Griffen-Cohen notes that the B.C. Medical Association – a male-dominated group – has fared much better in the past in their negotiations with the government.

That’s one interpretation. Another might be that (a) the BCMA isn’t really a union and (b) members of the BCMA are more likely to vote for the Liberal Party rather than members of the HEU or the BCTF, and in politics, it tends to be hard to fuck over your supporters and have them still support you (current counterexamples to this theory notwithstanding). At the time I remember wondering exactly why the Liberals felt it was a good idea to alienate one of their natural support groups, and perhaps that logic finally penetrated through. Or, you know, maybe the government’s just a bunch of bastards.

Lookit: The BC Liberals do not like labor unions. Period. There’s plenty of reason to get pissy about this, if you’re so inclined, without having to drag sexism into it.