Striking teachers in Alberta could be forced back to classrooms without a new deal next week. Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling explains what’s next. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Kent Morrison: What exactly does this potential back to work legislation mean? Jason Schilling: Basically as it says, it would force teachers back to work. Teachers are technically locked out right now, and so it would end that, and teachers would have to return to the classroom. We don’t know the particulars of the bill, what it looks like, the details, any kind of timelines. All of that is still under wraps. We just know that it will be tabled on Monday. KM: The province has said it’s coming Monday, however, it has opened the door to go back to the bargaining table before then to try to get a deal done. Will you do that? JS: Last week, we said to government we did not want to do enhanced mediation because it put too many limits around what we could talk about – primarily a student-teacher ratio. And we also said last Friday that we were willing to bargain and meet and negotiate every single day, but have yet to see government come back to the table since last Friday. So it’s interesting to say that we’re going to legislate you back, but we’re more than willing to have negotiations, but you would have to actually come to the table to do that. KM: The ATA has talked previously about consulting lawyers should back-to-work legislation come. Is there a chance that teachers could defy this order? JS: That’s a decision that is made by (the ATA’s) provincial executive council. We need to look at all the variables. We need to see the legislation first, to see exactly what it says, and then analyze it there and make our next steps at that point. KM: What’s your message to many teachers who are trying to unfold all of this after thousands of them showed up at the legislature yesterday, rallying in front of the government as the fall session began? JS: Not just teachers. There’s parents, there’s community supporters, there’s businesses. They’re all supporting teachers. This says to me that government really needs to listen about how much people care about public education and want to see it improved. To my colleagues, I know that they’ve put it all on the line to make school better for students and for their families and for themselves. I think yesterday sent a strong message to government that they can’t ignore. KM: What do you say to those who are maybe thinking at home, “What was this all for if I have to go to back to work anyway?” JS: We had the same struggle in 2002. Hopefully we could still negotiate something before Monday. But everybody in Alberta is talking about public education, and they’re not backing down in terms of what they want to see from government. They can’t just simply legislate a bill and think that the crisis in education is going to be over. And so this is a conversation that needs to happen now, but also the fixes we need to see in schools are a little bit more long term, and we have to keep working towards that goal. KM: How confident are you at this point that you’re going to get what you’re asking for? JS: I’m hopeful. I definitely know that teachers are on the right track. We’ve asked for reasonable things that can be done in a timeline that makes sense in an Alberta context. We just need government to actually step up and start funding education in this province in a way that people deserve it to be. Kids don’t deserve to go to school without the resources that are available to them. Teachers don’t deserve to see kids fall through the cracks like we need to do better by education in this province, and it’s time for government to recognize that.
