Alberta teachers vote against province’s tentative agreement

Alberta teachers have voted against a new contract offer from the provincial government. The ATA said teachers will strike next week if a deal isn't reached.

EDMONTON — Alberta teachers have overwhelmingly denied the province’s tentative agreement with 89.5 per cent of voters against the deal.

Results from the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) showed that 43,362 votes were cast. Just over 10 per cent of those voted to accept the memorandum of agreement.

The vote comes just a week before the provincewide strike deadline.

ATA president Jason Schilling confirmed Monday night that teachers will walk off the job on Oct. 6.

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“The proposed agreement failed to meet the needs of teachers, failed to improve student classroom conditions in a concrete and meaningful way, and failed to show teachers the respect they deserve,” said Schilling at a press conference following the results.

Schilling said teachers are dissatisfied with the agreement, but are also frustrated with other mandates the province has recently put on education, such as the book ban and trans legislation.

“Our members, quite honestly, are feeling extremely disrespected by the government,” he said.

Finance minister Nate Horner said he was disappointed that teachers rejected the deal.

“This is the second time teachers have rejected a potential settlement that provided what their union said teachers wanted in response to growing classroom complexities,” said Horner in a statement posted to social media. “With two failed ratification votes, I am left questioning whether the union fully understands what their members are seeking.”

Amanda Chapman, the NDP shadow education minister said the province has pushed the education system to a “breaking point.”

“This UCP government continues to insult teachers with an offer that does not meet their needs or improve classroom conditions,” she said in a statement.

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) urged the UCP government to accept responsibility for the teacher’s rejection.

“We at the AFL are appalled by the treatment of the ATA and its members by the current government,” said president Gil McGowan in a statement. “We urge you now ... to graciously accept the teachers’ vote against the deal your government proposed and come back with something better.”

While Schilling said teachers will start striking next week, he said the door is always open to the province for conversations.

“This vote today tells you the serious nature of where we are right now,” he said. “If we want to talk, we will need to have serious conversations about the things that teachers need to see in their classrooms.”

The upcoming strike will mark the biggest in the province’s history with every teacher in Alberta walking off the job.

Speaking at an unrelated event Monday evening in Calgary, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she was disappointed in the ratification and will join Horner on Tuesday to provide an update on support measures for students and families should teachers strike.

Over a year of negotiating

The parties have been negotiating for more than a year after the teachers contract expired on Aug. 31, 2024.

In June, 94 per cent of Alberta teachers voted in favour of a strike vote after negotiations came to a standstill. Teachers had 120 days to take action after the vote, making the deadline for a potential strike Oct. 7.

A strike could see more than 700,000 students across 2,500 schools impacted.

After reaching a tentative agreement last week, documents revealed that the deal was not much different than another that was proposed by the province, but included free COVID-19 vaccines.

Voting on the new deal started Saturday, which would see teachers receive a 12 per cent pay raise over four years and the hiring of 3,000 more teachers to address class sizes.

Union president Jason Schilling says teachers aren’t taking the vote lightly.

Alberta’s finance minister said a labour relations board consent order showed there were only three outstanding bargaining issues left between the province and teachers, none of which were about class size or complexity.

Minister Nate Horner said the issues are timeline for implementation of the unified grid, an annual 1.5 per cent long service allowance for teachers at the maximum step of the grid, and COVID-19 vaccination coverage.

Earlier this year, teachers rejected a mediator’s recommendations that included a general wage increase of three per cent per year for all teachers on all grids and allowances, a unified wage grid across the province, and a process could take when concerned their classroom complexity impacted their ability to teach. The recommendation also included more than $400 million in classroom improvements which would have started this fall.

Some 35,000 teachers voted with 62 per cent against the recommendations with 37.6 per cent in favour.

The Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA), which is the provincial group responsible for negotiating with teachers, voted to lock them out in late-August 41 to 13.

The lock out vote only provides the employer with the right to lock out employees, which the TEBA said would only be used as a “reactionary response.”

TEBA has 120 days to go through with a lockout and would need to give 72-hour notice.

A pulse survey done this year indicated that 69 per cent of teachers said their class sizes were larger than last year, with 40 per cent of respondents saying they had more than 30 students in their classroom.

About 90 per cent of survey respondents indicated that they have seen an increase to the complexity of their students’ needs while 58 per cent reported a decrease in resources supporting students with special needs.

The ATA was looking for $11.35 billion in the Alberta budget which earmarked $9.9 billion for education.

Budget 2025 allowed for $3.57-a day per student while the national average sits at $10-a day per student.

With files from The Canadian Press