As teachers’ strike negotiations stall, Alberta NDP cautions against potential back-to-work bill

Alberta’s Opposition NDP says it will fight the government’s looming plan to introduce a bill to force striking teachers back to work as bargaining stalls in the third week of the strike.

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is urging the public to keep pressuring the government to get a deal in place.

The spotlight on the strike shifts to the legislature as the fall sitting begins Thursday with the speech from the throne.

The strike, centred around a dispute over wages and working conditions, has affected 750,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools.

Teachers have been off the job since Oct. 6, and Smith says it is becoming an intolerable hardship for students and families and, absent a deal, may require her government to pass back-to-work legislation as early as next week.

Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said in an interview with CBC on Wednesday that he expects “that the premier will be true to her word and legislate teachers back to work.”

Nenshi told reporters Wednesday that his caucus can try procedural tactics to try to delay the bill’s passage but noted there is little the NDP can do to stop it given Smith’s United Conservative Party holds the house majority.

“Let’s make no mistake, they’re going to ram it through as fast as they can,” Nenshi said.

Nenshi said the NDP has invited teachers to take in Thursday’s throne speech from the gallery and noted that many more are expected to rally outside the legislature.

Schilling said a major sticking point in negotiations between the ATA and the province is class-size caps.

“Teachers had put forward a proposal last week to look at some [student-teacher] ratios and the government came back and said they wanted to — instead of addressing that — go into an enhanced mediation process, which we turned down.”

Schilling said the ATA told the government it was open to going back to the negotiation table last Friday, but has yet to hear back.

In a statement Wednesday, Marisa Breeze, the senior press secretary for Alberta’s Finance Minister Nate Horner, said the government respects the bargaining process and its priority remains encouraging both parties to reach a fair, negotiated agreement.

However, Breeze added that “if the ATA prolongs this strike and keeps our kids out of school … the government will legislate the teachers back to work at the start of the [legislative] session.”

Breeze said the province continues to encourage the ATA to propose a reasonable deal “so we can get our kids and teachers back in the classroom.”

Krystle Hoogendoorn, whose three children go to school in Parkland County’s district west of Edmonton, said the ATA’s concerns about class sizes resonate with her.

“I do feel that the ATA and the proposal that they sent about slowly bringing down class sizes and putting class size caps … is hitting my concerns as a parent. I do not feel that the government is listening,” Hoogendoorn said.

Hoogendoorn also said she is willing to keep her children at home longer and away from school if it means teachers can avoid being mandated back to work without negotiating better classroom supports.

“We’re losing a lot of valuable learning at the beginning of the year. But if we go back now, having them home for three [weeks] has been for nothing — if the government isn’t willing to budge on our class sizes and complexities.”