Labour relations expert concerned Alberta, teachers’ union are ‘squabbling in public’ instead of negotiating

Professor of labour relations at Athabasca University Jason Foster joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton with his input on the Alberta teachers' dispute.

The province filed a complaint accusing the Alberta teachers’ union of misleading families, while the union says the province is trying to sabotage negotiations. Professor of labour relations at Athabasca University Jason Foster joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton with his input.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kent Morrison: Let’s start off with the province making this legal challenge. What’s your take on that?

Jason Foster: This is obviously an attempt to try and sway public opinion. The province is trying to say, “The teachers are misleading and they’re not telling the truth to their members.” It’s not an unusual tactic, but it very much is aimed at public opinion and it’s certainly not helping find a resolution to the problem.

Kent: The ATA was pretty swift in their response yesterday, calling this “sabotage.” What does that mean to you as far as negotiations go?

Jason: That’s a natural response because one side is going to say X, the other side is going to naturally immediately say Y. That’s how this plays out. It’s not unexpected that they’re going to challenge this and I think they have a point. I believe that if they were actually serious about trying to get a deal, the parties would be pretty quiet right now, right? They would be at the table trying to figure this out. The fact that they’re still squabbling in public makes me a little concerned that they’re not making the progress that I think we all hope that they would make.

Kent: The teachers have said they will go on strike October 6. Can they go on strike earlier than that? Or are they stuck to that now that they’ve announced that?

Jason: I think they’re stuck to it out of their own strategic decision. Legally they can give 72 hours notice and go so they could go earlier. I think they made a decision that they wanted to give parents a little bit of certainty. A little bit of, “You’re OK until this date.” I think that was their plan. I imagine they’re going to stick with that at this point, but legally they could shift. I just don’t anticipate that they will.

Kent: What would you say to families, parents and everybody else who’s trying to figure out what’s going to happen come the first week of October?

Jason: I would just advise them to make some contingency plans. Hope for the best but prepare. Make sure you’ve got some child care figured out. Make sure you talk to your employer, see if you can get some arrangements because it’s unpredictable. Often in these kinds of disputes, the resolution happens at the last second. It’s entirely possible that we see something on October 4. October 5 is where they come up with a deal or they may not. Then it happens as of October 6.

Kent: Do you think there is enough time to reach a deal or even a last-minute deal?

Jason: There’s definitely time. Time is certainly what the parties have on their side at the moment because you can get this done in a day if you’re really focused. If you’re determined, you can make a deal happen. I think what I’ve been concerned about in the last couple of days that I wasn’t before, is that they don’t seem in a position where they’re actually sitting down and getting focused. The government is still throwing out barbs. It’s too busy trying to focus on public relations rather than actually getting at the table and doing some collective bargaining.