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This article corrects information contained in the print version of the article concerning the arbitration award in Pembina Hills, we apologize for the original error.
Dennis Theobald
The conclusion of five-year collective agreements in a handful of holdout school jurisdictions has set the stage for implementation of the historic November 15, 2007, agreement between the government and the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
Under the agreement, the government assumes responsibility for the entire pre-1992 liability of the Alberta teachers’ pension fund and provides for five-year collective agreements between the board and teacher bargaining units in each of the province’s 62 jurisdictions.
By the end of January, the majority of school boards and teacher bargaining units had reached settlements either by approving locally negotiated memoranda of agreement or mediators’ recommendations. Six school jurisdictions were without collective agreements as the January 31 deadline approached.
Five of the six, Buffalo Trail Public Schools RD 28, Lakeland Roman Catholic Separate SD 150, Pembina Hills RD 7, Prairie Land RD 25 and Wetaskiwin RD 11 belonged to the School Boards Employer Bargaining Association (SBEBA). The sixth was Grande Prairie Public School Board. In each case, a provincially appointed mediator had been involved in negotiations between the school board and the teachers’ bargaining unit and had written recommendations for settlement that had been accepted by the teachers but rejected by the employer.
With insufficient time remaining to engage in further negotiations with the holdout boards and with the entire provincial agreement at risk, ATA President Frank Bruseker called upon the school boards involved to submit to voluntary binding arbitration.
Speaking at a news conference convened in Barnett House on January 30, Bruseker summed up the situation this way: "Let’s be very clear—teachers have fulfilled their commitments. Collectively, we have voted 97 per cent in favour of the provincial agreement, and, in every single jurisdiction, teachers either negotiated directly with their boards or approved the recommendations made by independent mediators to arrive at five-year collective agreements. Across the province, 56 school boards, responsible for educating 95 per cent of this province’s children, have settled collective agreements and have done their part to make this agreement a reality—they can see its potential and its promise."
Bruseker pointed out that if even one of the remaining six boards refused to approve an agreement with its teachers, or at least to consent to binding arbitration, the entire provincial agreement and all local collective agreements reached over the past two months would be void. "Last year, I was warning that Alberta’s education system was heading towards widespread labour action. That is exactly where we will be again unless these boards see the light and start to act in the interests of their constituents and students. Arbitration is not only a reasonable solution, it is the only solution."
Faced with the ATA’s proposition and under intense pressure from the provincial government, the SBEBA boards consented to voluntary binding arbitration on the condition that the scope of the arbitration be limited, that the mediator who had written the recommendations be appointed as the arbitrator, and that the arbitrator hand down a decision by the evening of January 31.
After carefully considering the risks and benefits of this approach, the Association accepted SBEBA’s specifications, noting however, that it was highly unusual for a mediator to arbitrate a dispute. The ATA indicated that its acceptance was motivated by the unique circumstances created by the terms of the provincial memorandum and should not be regarded as establishing a precedent.
Steve Morrison, the mediator cum arbitrator, heard additional representations from the parties and shortly after 6 p.m., on January 31, handed down his decisions. For three of the five boards, the arbitration award was essentially identical to the recommendations for settlement made earlier. The award for Prairie Land differed from the original mediator’s recommendation in that it made clear that the teachers’ health spending account would be pro-rated for part-time teachers in the same manner as other benefits. The award in Pembina Hills differed from the original mediator’s recommendations in two significant respects. It eliminated a proposed increase in the health spending account and it reduced the percentage of benefits to be paid by the board. Morrison’s award reflected his belief that his original recommendations had been made in error.
Grande Prairie Public School Board’s original response to the offer of binding arbitration was to accept, subject to the same conditions proposed by the SBEBA boards and with the added stipulation that the mediator could not increase the cost of the final settlement to the school board. This latter condition was rejected outright by the ATA as biased and unfair. Eventually the board, again under pressure from the minister of education, elected to reconsider and approve the mediator’s original recommendations.
So, with just four and a half hours left on the clock, the job had been done and the provincial agreement implemented.
In the space of 42 working days, five-year collective agreements had been put into place in each of the province’s 62 school jurisdictions. Each agreement was consistent with the letter and spirit of the provincial accord, avoided diminishments and included modest enhancements that improved teachers’ conditions of employment.
At the formal announcement the next day in Calgary, Education Minister Ron Liepert noted that "many people worked very hard to make sure this MOA became a reality." Liepert acknowledged Premier Stelmach for his leadership in addressing the pension issue.
Echoing a comment made on the floor of the Emergent Representative Assembly, held November 24, 2007, the ATA president observed, "Education is the winner today." Concluded Bruseker: "We now will be able to focus our full attention where it belongs—teaching and learning in our province’s classrooms."
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