The Alberta Teachers’ Association

An exercise in principle and democracy

Teacher strike — if there ever was a four-letter word that isn’t, this is it!

A teacher strike means different things to different people. To students, it’s a chance to sleep in and get some bonus time off school, unless of course they are in Grade 12 and have diploma exams to write. For those students, a teacher strike is a nightmare. For parents, a teacher strike is a real challenge. Those with young children have to find alternate care and all of them have profound and legitimate concerns about what their children are missing from school.

For teachers, a strike is the ultimate wedge issue. The purpose behind most strikes is ultimately to drive public opinion and support in an effort to put pressure on the employer to adopt the teachers’ positions at the bargaining table.

However, a strike is so much more. It’s the ultimate exercise in democracy. For those who’ve never been involved in labour action, that may be difficult to understand, so let’s have a primer on what it takes to get to a strike. It’s a multi-step process in which the teacher voice is paramount.

Teachers vote by secret ballot to start bargaining (by ratifying an opening proposal) and at every subsequent step in the process: authorization to appoint a mediator, authorization to take a strike vote, strike vote and ratification of an agreement.

There is nothing more transparent and nothing more democratic than this process, which allows the teacher voice to reign supreme. It’s a voice that is both loud and local.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association has no ability to take all of Alberta’s teachers out on strike. Any strike vote occurs at the local bargaining unit level following the steps outlined above.

Why strike?

In Alberta, teachers have retained the right to strike but they exercise this right judiciously and cautiously. Generally, teachers have chosen to exercise this right in matters of principle.

For example, strikes and collective bargaining in the 1970s and early 1980s helped to establish important conditions of practice with respect to instructional and assignable time. The strikes in 2002 ensured that teachers were able to recover from the Klein cuts of the mid-1990s amidst the significant economic recovery that was taking place in Alberta at the time.

Additionally, there were significant gains made to beginning teacher salaries through grid roll up. It was apparent at the time that the teaching profession was becoming less and less attractive for young people. Raising the compensation for new teachers was a significant gain achieved through the collective sacrifice of teachers with more experience. While these experienced teachers would not directly benefit from higher entry-level salaries, they understood the value to the profession as a whole and took the steps necessary to achieve that.

These strikes also were significant first steps in the current fight around issues of classroom composition and conditions of practice that are so paramount for teachers today. The issues raised in 2002 led to the establishment of the Alberta Commission on Learning. Its subsequent report in 2003 laid the foundation for further enhancements to the profession, the role of teachers and defining the conditions of practice that teachers require to do their work.

There have been other strikes since 2002. Again, these collective actions by teachers served to shift the immediate landscape but also the landscape that lay well into the future.

In 2004–05 teachers in the Medicine Hat Catholic School Division chose strike action to push back against their employer, who had voted to lock them out. Teachers remained willing to continue performing service while negotiations proceeded, but in the face of an imminent lockout by the employer, the teachers voted overwhelmingly to take job action of their own and protect their right to collective bargaining.

In 2007 teachers in the Parkland School Division chose to strike as a means of resolving a bargaining dispute with their employer. This action, though difficult and painful, led to limits being placed on instructional time for those teachers. This fundamental condition of practice was established through collective action and the strike process.

The history of teacher strikes in Alberta is long, and the successes gained for the profession by the sacrifices of its members have been profound. Any teacher who’s ever been involved in a labour dispute that has reached the point of strike action will have a story to tell. Every strike has led to gains for teachers that have extended well beyond the teachers of the day.

To strike or not to strike

Ultimately, the decision about whether or not to walk out of classrooms rests with teachers. It is a sacrifice that teachers in Alberta have been willing to make for generations in order to achieve gains for the profession.

Teachers don’t strike to get a few days off during the school year. They lose income. They lose pensionable service. They lose access to their benefits. These are great costs.

There are other costs, as well. There are relationship costs, and this is a relationship business. The relationships with their employers take significant time to repair (though it’s not only the strike action that damages those relationships!).

The relationships with parents, students and communities are also often strained. This is especially so in small communities where many residents don’t have the ability to strike and don’t really understand the process. It can be difficult for teachers to go grocery shopping or to dine out in their community in the immediate aftermath of a strike. They are big fish in many of the smaller ponds that make up rural Alberta, and life can be difficult when dealing with people who have been negatively impacted by the job action, or people who just ideologically don’t understand or support the decision to strike.

Teacher strikes take courage. They take conviction. They take determination. These are traits that Alberta teachers proudly possess. Taking action to improve their profession and standing up for what they believe in is paramount and the cornerstone to any teachers’ job action. It’s what makes us strong as a profession, and it’s what improves the conditions of practice for teachers now and in the future.

Cory Schoffer is an executive staff officer in the Teacher Welfare program area of the Alberta Teachers’ Association.