Alberta teachers walked out of the classroom Monday, after reaching an impasse in contract negotiations with the government.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
Families across Alberta scrambled to adjust their daily routines on Monday, as a teachers’ strike affecting about 700,000 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 renewed fears of learning loss among a cohort that includes many young people whose schooling was already interrupted by the pandemic.
The strike began Monday after months of stalled negotiations between the province and its teachers’ union over class sizes, resources to support students with complex learning needs, and teacher pay.
This is the largest such strike in Alberta’s history, with 51,000 educators at public, separate and francophone schools walking off the job.
Earlier: Alberta teachers edge toward a strike with salaries a key issue
The Decibel: Why Alberta teachers are on the cusp of a historic strike
Jason Schilling, president of the union, the Alberta Teachers’ Association, defended the job action.
“This strike is not just about us. It’s for the students who can’t get the education they deserve,” he said at a press conference in Edmonton.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who was in Montreal Monday to give a speech to that city’s Chamber of Commerce, called on the union to return to negotiations.
“We are always ready to go back to the bargaining table. The teachers set this arbitrary deadline of October 6, and we’ve asked them to call off the strike and come back to the negotiating table. We don’t think we’re that far apart,” she said.
The union said Monday it has resumed “exploratory conversations” with the government.
“These are bargaining-adjacent conversations that provide opportunities for conversations between the parties that will inform possible future proposals,” the Alberta Teachers’ Association said in a statement.
Teachers and their supporters at a rally outside Alberta's legislature a day before the strike.
The Canadian Press
Some parents said Monday that if the strike continues beyond this week they will begin to worry about their children suffering not only academically, but also mentally and emotionally.
“My son said it feels like COVID all over again,” said Amber Kakakaway, a mother of two teenagers who lives in Airdrie, north of Calgary. “He said, ‘I know it’s different because it’s not that anybody’s sick, but we have no control over how long it’s going to be till we can go back and I can see my friends, or I can go into class, and I feel scared.’”
Waqar Ahmed, who manages a dental clinic in Calgary, said he and many families he knows were caught off guard by the strike and are now scrambling to make arrangements.
“We thought maybe it was going to be called off overnight,” he said. “Parents who are working, they were not prepared for it, so they are getting help from friends and family to dump the kids somewhere else.”
Mr. Ahmed said he was spending time Monday looking over the educational resources made available by the province to help families who are worried about their children falling behind during the strike.
Jodi McDonald is wondering how she will keep her son, who is in Grade 11, on track if the teacher's strike goes on much longer.Amber Bracken/The Globe and Mail
Jodi McDonald, a mother in Edmonton, said her 15-year-old son is “really disappointed” about the strike.
“He’s got a good crew of friends that he was excited to see in September. And now here we are,” she said. “Who knows when they’ll be back together in that kind of organized way.”
Ms. McDonald said she has told her son he must review what he has learned so far this year, but she added that she won’t be trying to teach him the curriculum during the strike.
“We tried that during COVID. Nobody was really good at it. We’re not teachers,” she said.
But this is not COVID-19, Ms. McDonald reminded her son, at least not when it comes to physical distancing. So go play with your friends, she told him on Monday.
As difficult as a strike may be, Ms. McDonald said she supports the teachers.
“We’ve seen what the cost is to our students of overcrowding the classrooms and putting more kids with complex learning needs together in a classroom with no support for the teacher,” she said.
Even if the government were to put forward a favourable offer, it would take about a week for teachers to be back on the job because of the time they would need to look the offer over and vote on it, Mr. Schilling said.
The latest offer from the province, rejected by nearly 90 per cent of teachers who voted last week, included a 12-per-cent pay raise over four years.
The union has proposed 34.5 per cent over the same period, although that is just a starting point, it has said. The final figure would be somewhere in the middle, Mr. Schilling has said.
The offer from the government also included hiring 3,000 new teachers and 1,500 educational assistants.
The last time teachers in Alberta went on strike, in 2002, then-premier Ralph Klein ordered them back to work after nearly three weeks.