Alberta teachers have officially started the countdown clock toward an Oct. 6 provincewide strike, with both sides accusing the other of failing students.
“Teachers’ patience has run out,” Jason Schilling, head of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, told reporters Wednesday.
He announced that if there is no deal in place by Oct. 6, the union’s 51,000 members will hit the picket lines.
“What teachers want is simple: classrooms that are properly funded, respect for the work that they do, and wages that reflect their value to Alberta’s future,” Schilling said.
The union executive has been given a strike mandate by members, but it ends Oct. 7.
The move comes more than a week after talks broke down between the union and the provincial government, with the main issues being wages and working conditions.
In Calgary, Premier Danielle Smith told reporters she’s disappointed.
“We hope that there’s a bit of time for them to return to the bargaining table,” Smith said. “(The union) unfortunately broke off negotiations when I thought we were making some great progress.”
Smith said the province’s offer to teachers hasn’t changed, adding it is preparing for a strike, but hopes it won’t come to that.
“Something’s got to give here,” she said.
Finance Minister Nate Horner accused the union of using the threat of strike action as “leverage” in its pursuit of more money.
“Announcing a strike commencing Oct. 6 before the parties have resumed negotiations only serves to increase stress among Alberta’s students and families,” Horner said in a statement.
“Alberta’s government is committed to finding a fair settlement that ensures as many resources as possible are directed to essential classroom supports.”
Horner has said the government is offering wage hikes of 12 per cent over four years, with a promise to hire some 3,000 more teachers.
Schilling has said teachers have only seen a 5.75 per cent salary increase over the last decade and that it doesn’t even keep up with inflation.
The union has long pointed to national statistics suggesting Alberta’s per-student funding is among the lowest in Canada.
Earlier this week, Schilling urged parents to press the government to act.
“They need to ask them why this seems to be acceptable to government,” he said.
“Why do we find ourselves in a situation where 40 seems to be the new norm for class sizes in many schools across this province?”
Meanwhile, Horner has said the government is in a new kind of squeeze, facing down a deficit projected to hit $6.5 billion, and despite that, has put up a deal for teachers worth $2.3 billion.
“The big change since April — the first deal — is the deteriorating fiscal position of the province,” Horner said this week in an interview.
He said there’s a good reason for slight increases to teacher pay in Alberta over the last 15 years: they were paid “above market” when those conversations first began.
“We needed to align ourselves more closely with the comparator provinces. Alberta can’t afford to be an outlier in that way, so we feel that this deal addresses that catch-up and places us strongly in market,” he said.
“We think this is a fair deal. We think this is a good deal.”
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