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.
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“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 is in Quebec, where she is scheduled 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.
“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.
As for how long it could last, Schilling said, “I can’t give you a definite answer. Ideally, we would like to be able to get a solution that is going to work in our schools and that’s going to for teachers, families and the association.”
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