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Your voice needs to be heard! That’s the message being sent out by the Central Table Bargaining Committee (CTBC) as it prepares for the upcoming round of central bargaining.
Members are urged to take a bargaining needs survey that will help CTBC pinpoint the hot-button issues facing today’s teachers.
“This is about the salary and benefits teachers take home to their families. It’s their pay packet,” says Sandra Johnston, co-ordinator of the Teacher Welfare program area of the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
Information gathered through the survey will help the CTBC develop the proposal that it advances to central table bargaining this spring with the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA).
“The Association takes direction from the membership,” Johnston emphasized. “They tell us what issues to pursue and how vigorously we should pursue them.”
The survey contains a number of questions regarding teachers’ conditions of practice. These questions provide teachers an opportunity to describe their teaching conditions to the committee that represents them at the bargaining table. The survey covers issues ranging from class size to support for complex classrooms to aggression in schools. Once central table bargaining begins, the committee will continuously refer back to the collected data for direction. The survey results will identify teachers’ priorities and help the committee make bargaining decisions while at the table.
The confidential information collected through the survey is retained by the Association for future reference. Committee members use it to determine if a flagged issue was adequately dealt with in the last round of bargaining.
“If it is still a big issue in this round, then we can say ‘OK, that hasn’t been dealt with. We need to do some more work here,’” Johnston said.
Taking the survey
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and consists of approximately 35 questions covering topics from benefits to wages. It is open to all members currently covered by any of the ATA’s 61 collective agreements and is available in both English and French.
While the survey can be completed on mobile devices such as phones or tablets, it is best suited to being completed using a laptop or home computer. The survey should also only be completed during personal time. You can pause it at any point and return to complete the questions at a later date. ❚
Bill 5 and TEBA
On March 3, the provincial government tabled Bill 5, the Fiscal Measures and Taxation Act, which includes clauses that affect the bargaining processes outlined in the Public Education Collective Bargaining Act. “The biggest change is in the elevation of power for TEBA’s board of directors,” said Teacher Welfare co-ordinator Sandra Johnston.
TEBA consists of two parties: the board of directors (eight government and seven school board appointees) and the representative committee (elected trustees from the 61 school divisions). In previous negotiations, TEBA’s representative committee ratified the central bargaining settlements. Under Bill 5, TEBA’s board of directors will make the final decision on ratification, and the government has the majority of members on the board of directors.
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Bill 5 and TEBA
On March 3, the provincial government tabled Bill 5, the Fiscal Measures and Taxation Act, which includes clauses that affect the bargaining processes outlined in the Public Education Collective Bargaining Act. “The biggest change is in the elevation of power for TEBA’s board of directors,” said Teacher Welfare co-ordinator Sandra Johnston.
TEBA consists of two parties: the board of directors (eight government and seven school board appointees) and the representative committee (elected trustees from the 61 school divisions). In previous negotiations, TEBA’s representative committee ratified the central bargaining settlements. Under Bill 5, TEBA’s board of directors will make the final decision on ratification, and the government has the majority of members on the board of directors.
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