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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).
The end of tripartite discussions between the Alberta government, the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Alberta School Boards Association signals a change in direction. What happens next?
The answer is simple: local bargaining.
With the exception of the most recent five-year deal, bargaining is usually conducted at the local level. Bargaining involves local teachers and their representatives, and local school boards and their representatives. The goal of local bargaining for this round (2013) is the same as it was in the past—to obtain a new collective agreement with improvements sought by teachers of each bargaining unit.
All 62 bargaining units in Alberta have served notice and developed initial proposals based on teacher input and voted on by teachers. Initial proposals have been exchanged with each board’s negotiating committee. Bargaining has already begun and will continue despite the failure of tripartite discussions.
This past fall, Negotiating Sub-Committees (NSCs) were involved in local bargaining. A number of committees signed off on parts of agreements as they waited for the tripartite talks to develop a framework. Other NSCs were put on hold as they waited to see where the tripartite discussions were going before actively pursuing new agreements. For those boards and teachers, it’s time to begin bargaining.
There are two outcomes to bargaining: (1) a memorandum of agreement is reached or (2) an impasse is reached, which leads to mediation. In the case of the latter, teachers vote on whether or not to pursue mediation. Mediation does not mean strike. The mediator’s role is to get the two sides to reach an agreement. The mediator presents a settlement offer that teachers and their board would need to approve.
The failure to reach an agreement or to mediate a settlement could result in teachers seeking a government-supervised strike vote. However, much bargaining can occur before that stage is ever reached.
