Teachers’ association pans boards’ calls to resume local bargaining

With the current collective agreement with Alberta teachers entering its final year, school boards are pushing for a return to local bargaining.

Earlier this week, a majority of school districts approved a resolution at the Alberta School Boards Association spring meeting in Red Deer that calls on the provincial government to ensure future settlements are negotiated between local parties.

The resolution would allow local teachers and school boards to, respectively, seek advice from the Alberta Teachers’ Association or expertise from ASBA, but prevents either party from have the terms of the settlement dictated to them.

“If we’re going to provide the best quality of service to our students, then the local school boards and the local teachers have to figure out, ‘ What are the issues that we’re facing and how can we work together to provide the best quality education to students,” said Terry Riley, chair of the Medicine Hat School District.

“Having provincewide imposed settlements does not solve local education problems,” Riley said.

“Local bargaining allows local teachers to meet their issues, local school boards to meet their issues and allows local school boards and teacher to work co- operatively to meet the needs of students.”

But ASBA’s resolution was panned by the teachers’ association which accused school boards of trying to interfere with its policy that calls for a mixture of provincial and local bargaining.

“Teachers have already decided that on provincial matters or things that the government is directly funding then we should negotiate directly with the government because they have the provincial purse,” said ATA president Mark Ramsankar.

“If there are things that need to be addressed locally then those should be negotiated locally,” he said.

“The direction that is being set here I’m not sure what it is that they’re asking for other than trying to make rules to say that the government should change the way we do business.”

The current four- year agreement between teachers and the province expires in August of 2016 and included no salary increases for the first three years and a two per cent hike in the final year with a one per cent lump sum payment.

The former Tory government imposed the deal after years of intense tripartite talks between the province, ASBA and the teachers association.

The Calgary Board of Education initially refused to support that agreement over concerns student education would be put into the hands of the teachers union and created an excessive and expensive bureaucracy.

The board later ratified the deal with teachers.

“There’s not a one size fits all for all school boards,” said Joy Bowen-Eyre, chair of the CBE, one of the boards that supported the resolution recently passed at the ASBA meeting.

“We have good relations with our union groups so we’re better able to encompass all aspects so it’s not just about salary increases it’s about working conditions as well,” said Bowen- Eyre.

With the clock ticking on the current agreement and negotiations expected to begin early next year, Bowen- Eyre said the CBE would like clarity from the NDP government by the fall over whether it intends to support ASBA’s motion.

“We need to get some feedback from the government relatively soon because, of course, we’re going to be bargaining soon and it’s a very elongated process,” she said.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister David Eggen said the resolution is one of several that would be reviewed and discussed with the association’s leadership in the near future.