The Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) is accusing the provincial government of bad faith bargaining during recent contract negotiations, which ended with the government legislating an end to the nearly month-long strike by the province’s 51,000 teachers.
ATA President Jason Schilling claims, “The government now says the 3,000 teachers promised during contract negotiations were already included in the 2025 budget.”
Schilling says that was something government negotiators never mentioned during bargaining.
He says the ATA has filed a complaint with the Alberta Labour Relations Board, accusing the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) of unfair and bad faith bargaining.
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Sixty-one grievances have also been filed, one for every bargaining unit across the province, regarding TEBA’s and the employers’ interpretation of the Recruitment of Teachers Letter of Understanding.
Schilling has accused the government of Alberta of attempting to drive a wedge between teachers and the ATA after government officials publicly questioned the association’s motives during negotiations.
“This is not simply a misunderstanding. It is a breach of good faith,” said Schilling. “It is a misrepresentation that affected decisions made at the bargaining table and the understanding of Albertans.”
Among the remedies the ATA is seeking is a declaration that the 1,000 new teachers must be funded and hired over and above the teachers Schilling claims the government now says were already included in the 2025 budget.
More to come….
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