Attack on teachers not supported by Albertans
Opposition to Bill 12 continues to mount

Jim Selby, AFL Staff

Bill 12, the Education Services Settlement Act, is facing mounting opposition from teachers, students, the public and the labour movement. The Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) is examining possible legal challenges to the Act, as is the Alberta Federation of Labour. On April fourth, students from across Edmonton left their classes to protest at the Legislature. The protest was organized solely by students using the internet to spread the word in a few short days. Hundreds of students showed up to urge the government to address teachers concerns and the real problems in education.

Teachers around the province are both angry and frustrated, according to ATA President Larry Booi. "The law is an affront to teachers’ rights, collective bargaining and democracy," said Booi. "It has rightly inflamed teachers, but it will also destroy cooperation and undermine our classrooms."

The Act prohibits discussion of critical educational issues, like classroom size, teacher-pupil ratios, and teachers’ hours of work – all of which were crucial issues in the decision of teachers to go on strike in the first place. It also effectively caps teachers salary increases to the government’s budgetary guidelines of 4% and 2% over two years with most school boards – because the government has set their funding levels and the Act prohibits any award from creating a deficit position for school boards.

"This is not arbitration, charged Booi, "it is a legislated imposition of contracts, a smashing of teachers’ rights, and an arrogant abuse of power."

A dangerous labour relations precedent

The labour movement strongly supported the teachers’ protest and voiced strong opposition to Bill 12. "This Act sets labour relations in Alberta back a hundred years," said Alberta Federation of Labour President Les Steel. He suggests the government actions have tainted the arbitration process and poisoned any trust working men and women may have had in the government’s honesty and commitment to labour rights.

"If the government is willing to strip teachers of their democratic right to free collective bargaining at the drop of a hat, are any workers in this province safe from a similar legislative mugging?", asked Steel. He pointed out that not only did the Bill make a mockery of impartial arbitration by predetermining the outcome in the employers’ favour; it also stripped existing contracts of rights that had been freely negotiated between parties in the past.

"This is incredibly dangerous ground," said Steel. "If government can overturn agreements made in good faith by two independent and sovereign parties, then no collective agreement is safe."

Teachers withdraw voluntary duties

In face of the assault on teachers’ rights, the ATA has called upon teachers to fight back with every legal means at their disposal. Teachers are being asked to withdraw voluntary services wherever it is lawful and as long as the health and safety of the children are respected. Further, the ATA has asked teachers to withdraw all services to the minister of learning.

Teachers are well aware that this withdrawal of voluntary services will have a serious impact on public education. "We must be clear that our schools will be very different from this point onward," said Booi. "The responsibility for this situation rests entirely with the provincial government and school boards, who chose this appalling legislation over the good-faith offer by teachers to resolve the dispute."

Some schools have already withdrawn from district-level track and field events, cancelled field trips, music concerts, and noon hour intramurals. Individual teachers have withdrawn from fundraising activities and from voluntary services like graduation dances, sports teams, after-school clubs, and sports teams.

As AFL President Les Steel pointed out: "parents and communities are starting to realize how much voluntary, unpaid help teachers were providing – not just on educational activities, but on a broad range of cultural and athletic and social events vital to our children and our communities."