Medicine Hat teachers reject memorandum of agreement

For the first time in more than 30 years, teachers employed by Medicine Hat School District No. 76 have turned down a memorandum of agreement reached between teacher bargainers and school trustees.

At a general meeting held June 14, called to consider the terms of the memorandum, 173 members of Medicine Hat Local No. 1 of the ATA voted 96 per cent against acceptance.

The major problem with the memorandum, according to Heather McCaig, president of the Medicine Hat teachers’ local, was the phase-in of proposed salary increases. "The board offered a 3-year collective agreement with a 4 per cent increase effective March 1 each year," McCaig said. "The deal was based more on economic assumptions than on Alberta’s economic facts."

McCaig was clear that teachers do not view the rejection of the memorandum as a sign of unhappiness with the school board. "We have a very positive relationship with our school trustees," McCaig said. "Our concern is with the low level of funding support announced by the minister of education, a level that will impose hardship on our school jurisdiction and all other school jurisdictions in the province."

McCaig said that the 3 per cent increase in education funding announced by the government is simply insufficient. "With inflation in the province this year topping 5.5 per cent, it is little wonder that the memorandum was rejected." According to McCaig, the trustees offered what they thought they could afford. "With a forecast budget surplus of over $2 billion this year, it is high time that the provincial government figured out that the best investment in this province is an investment in the future through education."

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