After a months-long contract dispute between teachers and the province, 51,000 members of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) went on strike Monday morning.
More than 730,000 students across the province are set to be affected by the strike. Of those, more than 142,000 are enrolled in the Calgary Board of Education (CBE).
Members of the ATA, who teach at public, separate and francophone schools across the province, overwhelmingly rejected an offer that would have included a wage increase of 12 per cent over four years, most teachers being bumped up to a higher salary grid, and complimentary access to the $100 COVID-19 vaccine for teachers without health issues.
The offer, rejected by 89.5 per cent of voting ATA members, included a commitment to fund 3,000 more net new teaching positions. The ATA says that’s not enough, with president Jason Schilling saying more than 5,000 new teachers are needed, in addition to supports for increased class size and complexity, and pay increases that better keep up with inflation.
The now-rejected deal also included a commitment to hire 1,500 more educational assistants for schools by 2028, which the province has said it still intends to do.
Students will still be able to access learning materials virtually while out of school.
CBE students will have access to online learning platforms D2L and Google Classroom during the strike, said the school board’s chief superintendent Joanne Pitman in a statement.
“Teachers will not be monitoring, responding to or assessing student work during the strike,” she said.
The school board had initially said access to the platforms would be shut off, but that decision was reversed Oct. 3.
The provincial government is offering free K-12 curriculum learning toolkits, available in English, French and French Immersion, for students to continue learning during the strike.
With that also comes a temporary lifting of the province’s 10-credit per year limit on non-primary distance education, meaning students in grades 10 to 12 can continue earning credits during the strike by enrolling in distance learning with an independent school for the rest of the fall term, while remaining enrolled in their current school division.
Parents and guardians of public, Catholic or francophone school students aged 12 or younger can apply to receive $150 per week from the province. Those funds will come from money saved during the strike, the province said.
Applications for the payments can be submitted online starting Oct. 14. The first payments are scheduled to be sent by e-transfer starting Oct. 31, retroactive to Monday, Oct. 6.
Only one parent or guardian per student is eligible for the payment.
Alberta announces support for parents as teacher strike looms
Out-of-school care programs are eligible, but not required, to provide all-day child care for children under 13 during the strike.
The province is also offering increased subsidies for licensed full-time child care for children in grades one through six to summer rates — up to $644 — for the entire month of October, following five consecutive days of teacher job action.
Free admission to provincial heritage sites and museums, including the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller and Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump in Fort Macleod, is available for Albertans 18 and under during the strike.
Class won’t be in session, but school support staff are expected to remain at work.
That includes bus drivers, custodians and educational assistants.
Bus drivers and support staff will be at work during teachers strike
Transportation companies Southland and First Student both said their bus drivers will continue working while students are out of school, with much of their time on payroll going toward training.
“We’ll have them come into work getting ready to go every day,” said Les Cross, president of Southland’s parent company Pacific Western Transportation.
“If we just lay the drivers off, it’s really hard to get them all to come back because you can look for other employment,” he said.
Unionized educational assistants and support workers at CBE and the Calgary Catholic School District will continue to work, both school boards confirmed.
Unifor, which represents nearly 4,000 school staff including educational assistants and librarians, made it clear that its members will not fill in for teachers.
“We’re not going to be making this easier on the government at all,” said the union’s western regional director Gavin McGarrigle. “And we’re going to be supporting the teachers by doing our job correctly, not doing any of the teachers’ work, and then joining the teachers on the picket lines when we can.”
CUPE Local 40, which represents maintenance workers including custodians, landscapers and mechanics at CBE, confirmed its members will also remain at work during the strike.
“We’ve been told there’s no shortage of work,” said president Clay Gordon.
“I think it’ll be a good opportunity for a lot of work that hasn’t been done to be caught up on.”
The province said the decision on whether to keep support staff is up to the school boards.
Calgary educational support staff and school maintenance workers were both on the picket line earlier this year. Those groups reached deals with their employers, putting an end to their respective strikes.
The last time Alberta teachers went on strike was in 2002, when after nearly three weeks of job action, Progressive Conservative premier Ralph Klein ordered more than 20,000 striking teachers from 22 school divisions back to work.
