Alberta teachers eyeing job action as local disagreements drag on for years

Teachers with Edmonton Public Schools will take a strike vote next month after rejecting two proposed settlements from a mediator this fall.

Unable to reach an agreement on local issues with Edmonton's public school board, around 7,000 teachers will be eligible to vote from Jan. 14 to 17 to express their appetite for taking job action.

"An actual strike is always a last resort. Teachers don't want to be out of their classroom," Edmonton Public Teachers local 37 president Heather Quinn said in an interview Wednesday.

"They have been pushed to a point where they feel like they have other choice but to take some form of action."

Heather Quinn is president of Edmonton Public Teachers local 37. She says a strike would be the last resort. (Submitted by the Alberta Teachers' Association)

Teacher bargaining in Alberta happens in a phased approach. School board and government representatives first negotiate with teachers to decide which issues will be bargained provincially, and which issues should be resolved at the school board level.

Expensive items, such as base salaries, are bargained at the provincial level.

In June 2022, teachers and employers ratified a four-year contract that runs until Aug. 31, 2024. Teachers employed by public, Catholic and francophone school boards then must hammer out local agreements to address other working conditions. Many parties started that work in fall 2022.

The Alberta Teachers' Association says 11 of 61 local bargaining units, representing more than 15,000 teachers, have not yet reached local agreements. That's about a third of publicly employed teachers in the province.

Among them are Edmonton public and Catholic school boards, Rocky View Schools around Calgary, Lethbridge-based Holy Spirit Catholic Schools, and Fort McMurray Catholic Schools.

In Edmonton public, the unresolved concerns include working conditions for teachers running online classes, Quinn said. Those teachers say class sizes and workload are too large, Quinn said. Substitute teachers also want paid professional development days, so they don't have to forfeit wages to participate in professional learning, she said.

As the division adopts a school year calendar that is more inclusive of key holidays for several cultures, Quinn says the board won't commit to keeping a week-long break from classes in November. She said some of the contentious issues are not expensive to resolve, but the board isn't budging. Teachers feel disrespected, she said.

Should Edmonton public teachers vote to support the strike mandate, the union local has 120 days to give notice if they plan to take job action.

Quinn said members would first consider alternatives to walking off the job completely, such as refusing to prepare lessons or mark tests and assignments outside work hours, or refusing to lead extracurricular activities with students.

In an emailed statement, Edmonton Public Schools spokesperson Anna Batchelor said the board is aware of the teachers' impending strike vote.

"We value the work teachers do each and every day to support students in the classroom and remain committed to working collaboratively with the teachers' bargaining committee to reach an agreement," she said.

Edmonton Catholic Schools spokesperson Christine Meadows said the board is heading to mediation in February with its 2,800 teachers.

"We are committed to working with the Local through mediation to reach a deal on local bargaining items," she said.

The president of Edmonton Catholic Teachers declined to comment while negotiations are underway.

Rocky View Schools teachers could head to strike vote

In Airdrie, Cochrane, and the other communities in the Rocky View school division, teachers' relations with the school board have also become tense.

Local president Amrit Rai Nannan says the 1,700 members rejected a mediated offer from the board in November. On Dec. 10, members voted 99.6 per cent in favour of requesting authorization for a strike vote. Members were upset because the board suggested it was a final offer, she said.

Teacher Amrit Rai Nannan is the president of the Rocky View Teachers local 35. She says teachers feel disrespected by the school board's approach to local bargaining. (Submitted by Rod Hiebert Photography)

"There isn't a teacher that is pushing for a strike," Rai Nannan said. "Everybody wants the conversation to come back. Everybody wants to be back at the table. Have a cordial conversation. Be listened to. Be respected. Be heard."

Concerns for Rocky View teachers also include workload for online teachers, as well as better recognition for the unpaid time principals and assistant principals spend on holidays and during the summer preparing to run schools.

Rai Nannan says the board has now agreed to meet with teachers in January, which she thinks is a hopeful sign. If not, members could consider a strike vote this winter, she said.

In a statement, a Rocky Views Schools spokesperson said board members are optimistic they can reach an agreement.

"RVS values our teachers and their commitment to students," Tara de Weerd wrote.

The delays in reaching local agreements mean thousands of teachers have been working without a current contract for more than three years.

Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling says he knows educators dislike the lengthy waits.

"I'm frustrated that we have reluctant boards that are unwilling to move on issues that are important to teachers," he said.

However, the multi-stage process is key to teachers keeping their bargaining rights, he said.

Meanwhile, the ATA is heading into negotiations with the government and school board representatives in January to begin the next round of "list bargaining" — deciding which issues will be bargained provincially or locally.

Alberta teachers have not gone on strike since educators in the Parkland school division, west of Edmonton, walked off the job in 2007.