The Alberta Teachers’ Association had some harsh words for the provincial government as it defended the decision by Alberta’s 51,000 teachers to walk off the job Monday, the first day of a provincewide teachers strike.
During a press conference Monday morning in Edmonton, ATA president Jason Schilling repeated teachers’ call for more resources for overcrowded schools.
“We’re tired of a public education system that is treated like an inconvenient cost instead of a valued investment for our future,” Schilling said.
“We are tired of a lack of resources for teaching and support for the students who we teach. We did not become teachers to leave our classrooms behind and our students in this way. We became teachers because we want to make a difference.”
Teachers overwhelmingly rejected the government’s latest offer in a vote late last month, which included a 12 per cent pay raise over four years, a government promise to hire 3,000 more teachers to address class sizes and money to cover the cost of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The ATA claims the government’s hiring offer is a drop in the bucket compared with what’s needed and at least 5,000 more teachers are needed to meet desired student-teacher ratios.
“We became teachers because we want to make a difference, and when the system is broken and in crisis like this one, when the ability to do our jobs is ineffectively compromised, when the provincial government continually disrespects the teaching profession and its members, then speaking up becomes our responsibility,” Schilling said.
“This strike is not just about us. It’s for the students who can’t get the education they deserve.”
Premier Danielle Smith, who was in Quebec to give a speech to the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, responded to the strike by calling for teachers to return to the bargaining table.
“The teachers set this arbitrary deadline of Oct. 6, and we’ve asked them to call off the strike and to come back to negotiating. We don’t think we’re that far apart. We think our wage offer is very fair,” Smith said.
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“They were the ones who have unfortunately made the decision to walk off the job and we’d like them to come back.”
Schilling said Friday that the two sides have resumed “exploratory conversations.”
But when asked Monday about the status of those negotiations, he said, “We need to make sure that we’re having conversations that are going to give concrete changes to the way that schools are operating right now.”
The strike is affecting 700,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools in the province.
Smith has defended her government’s decision to not put ratios or class caps on the table, by saying the province is constrained by existing space but has allocated $8.6 billion to create more than 100 new and updated schools.
Schilling said that sounds like an excuse.
“We’re supposed to teach our classes in overcrowded spaces because the government failed to plan.”
Christine Hauck, an elementary school teacher in Wetaskiwin, south of Edmonton, said the beginning of the strike was anticlimactic.
“It’s such a trip not going to work today,” she said. “I’m kind of twiddling my thumbs.
“I was actually thinking about doing some schoolwork just to feel normal.”
For her school division, Hauck said, one of the most pressing issues is classroom complexity and students who need support that she alone can’t provide.
“I’ve got a really complex class with a lot of needs,” said the Grade 4 teacher.
“They’re lovely children — I love them to death. It’s a lot, though, without any kind of other adults in the room.”
Parents with children 12 and under are eligible for $30 a day from the province to cover child-care costs during the strike, with funds to be distributed starting Oct. 31.
The province has also made the kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum available online and is urging parents to teach their kids at home if they wish.
While schools are shut down, teachers are not preparing to walk picket lines in front of them. Instead, the ATA said there will be more rallies like ones in Edmonton and Calgary on the weekend that attracted thousands of people.
Monday afternoon, the Teachers Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) said, in a written statement, that it had provided lockout notice to the Alberta Teachers Association that will take effect on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 11 a.m.
TEBA describes it as “a routine process employers use in response to unions going on strike.”
“We saw earlier this year with rotating strikes by educational assistants the tremendous uncertainty it created for school divisions, parents and students, who were given very short notice about where strike activity would be taking place.”
“The lockout provides predictability and stability for students,” said the TEBA statement.
In its own, separate, written statement, the ATA said “the government’s lockout notice was expected.”
But an ATA spokesperson said it won’t have a significant impact on the dispute.
“The Alberta Teachers Association and government officials remain in talks,” said the ATA.
With files from The Canadian Press
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