Alberta teachers send ‘unmistakable’ message to government with strike vote
Parents, teachers, public education advocates, members of the Alberta Teachers Association, and NDP MLA Ifran Sabir protested at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on Saturday, December 18, 2021. The protestors called on the government to completely scrap the proposed draft curriculum. ARYN TOOMBS / FOR LIVEWIRE CALGAR Aryn Toombs
By Kaiden Brayshaw, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Alberta teachers now have 120 days to begin a strike following a 95 per cent approval for a strike.
Seventy-six per cent of registered eligible teachers voted, but not all eligible teachers are registered to vote, according to Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling.
Schilling said that the governing body of the ATA, the Provincial Executive Council will now meet to discuss next steps.
“We actually have a meeting this week that was already scheduled, and as council members know, I am not shy to call an emergency meeting when we need to,” he said.
“We will meet as often as we have to in order to find a solution to this down the road.”
The ATA currently has two scheduled meetings with the teacher’s employment bargaining association this month.
“We hope the government will come with real solutions to address teachers’ concerns,” Schilling said.
If any job action is to occur in the next 120 days, Schilling said the ATA will give a public 72-hours notice.
Schilling was unable to provide exact dates for the earliest and latest that strike action could begin.
In a statement, the Calgary Board of Education said they will communicate information with impacted groups as needed.
“We have a process for managing job action and are actively working on contingency plans,” the statement read.
Similarly, the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) said they will continue to monitor the situation, sharing updates as more information becomes available.
“CCSD deeply values our teachers and is grateful for their dedication and care,” they said in a statement.
Despite not being directly involved in the coming actions, Schilling said that teachers have now indicated that they have had enough.
“They have been asked to do more with less every single year. We have been the least funded school jurisdiction in Canada for well over a decade and we’re seeing the implications of that in our classrooms right now,” Schilling said.
“Teachers turning down the mediators recommendation the authorization to a strike vote, which is an internal process for us, sends a strong message to government that teachers are concerned about the state of public education right now.”
Schilling said that the strike is not simply about a salary increase, instead, teachers want to “see their students thrive.”
“Right now (students) are just surviving. We did a survey of our membership in January, this year 69 per cent of our teachers have seen an increase in their class sizes since last year,” he said.
“We are seeing reports from different school divisions across the province where they’re using their school libraries or their learning commons as classrooms. They’re using gyms as classrooms.”
Schilling said that teaching needs to be an attractive profession, as the ATA is seeing a retention and recruitment issue.
“Just ask anybody who’s working in classrooms today whether or not they can get a substitute teacher for their absences, we are worried that the crisis that exists now is only going to be amplified in the future if we don’t address their concerns immediately,” he said.