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If the proposed framework agreement succeeds, what will happen to local bargaining?
Creating the Conditions for the Best Professional Practice is a series of articles by the Teacher Welfare (TW) program area of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA). Previous articles published in the ATA News have been posted to the ATA’s website (www.teachers.ab.ca).
On March 13, 2013, Premier Alison Redford presented ATA President Carol Henderson with an offer that provides a framework for collective agreements up to August 31, 2016. Over the next few weeks, you will be invited to attend a Bargaining Unit General Meeting (BUGM) to vote on whether or not you accept the proposed framework.
The framework addresses length of term, salary and some conditions for professional practice. However, even if the framework passes, local negotiations would still proceed. Items that would be concluded locally include incorporating the terms of the framework agreement into the local collective agreement and negotiating other non-cost items. In addition, there would be a minimum set amount of funds available for cost items, such as substitute teacher pay, benefits and leaves. Your Negotiating Subcommittee has until December 31 to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA). If the MOA is not signed, the remaining items in dispute would be referred to voluntary arbitration.
If teachers endorse the proposed framework agreement, then they can sit back and relax for the next three years, right? Absolutely not! An important part of the framework is the establishment of a local committee in each school district to “conduct internal reviews to determine what jurisdiction-initiated tasks or policies can be eliminated or modified to reduce teacher workload and improve teacher efficacy.” Teachers and school jurisdiction representatives, along with a facilitator from Alberta Education, will engage in meaningful discussions on the cost–benefit analysis of the work teachers do.
This joint committee is not meant to engage in a workload study; the government is committing to a comprehensive study (see section C3 of the proposed framework agreement). An interim report is required from each committee by the end of October (in the interest of saving time, a good place to start would be to ask teachers which tasks they perform contribute least to student learning). Based on the interim report’s recommendations, the committee can develop a plan to identify, modify, streamline and/or remove other tasks over the remaining years of the agreement.
Other issues exist that teachers should focus on over the next few years. For example, the framework agreement recognizes some of the fiscal concerns of the government but does not address the financial realities of the province, nor does it adequately address other conditions for professional practice, such as class size, resources and support for students with special needs.
We’ve learned from the past five years that as much as we’d like to, we can’t simply close the classroom door and teach. This time we have to get involved and lobby for the things that make education great and good teaching possible. A first step in that direction is to get involved in this fall’s school board trustee elections. You can help to ensure that elections are contested in each jurisdiction and that the best people are elected as your employers for the next three years.
