How can teachers support the ATA in achieving optimal conditions of practice?

November 6, 2012

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).

Teachers who want to see improvements to their conditions of practice may wonder how they can best support the ATA in achieving those improvements.

Teachers in Alberta provide professional service to students in 62 school boards. As employees of those boards, teachers have the right to bargain payment for professional services, the type of professional services they will provide and the conditions under which they will provide those services. This process is governed by the Labour Relations Code. In the Association’s structure for collective bargaining, each local has an economic policy committee (EPC) that monitors conditions of practice in the bargaining unit and represents members in collective bargaining. A negotiating subcommittee (NSC), along with an ATA staff member, bargains with a committee from the school board.

You should be familiar with your bargaining unit’s opening proposal, which was ratified by members at a general meeting last spring. Information about the proposal and the status of bargaining is available from any EPC member (listed on your local’s website or in local publications). The EPC sends out regular memos on the status of bargaining, and updates are provided at local council, so your school representative will have that information. If the EPC needs direction from members, it will call a bargaining unit general meeting (BUGM). Only members who attend will hear about the issues first-hand and have a vote in how the EPC proceeds. Events affecting collective bargaining provincewide are reported on the ATA website and in the ATA News.

Your EPC may survey teachers about their conditions of practice. Filling out the survey or hours of work logs is one way you can provide information that will be used at the bargaining table.

Teachers must also talk to their colleagues and the public about their work. Teaching is a very public profession and one on which most everyone has an opinion. Those who went to school think that they know all about the work of teachers, but those perceptions often do not reflect today’s teaching reality. Talking about your work doesn’t mean that you should tell ­everyone how hard you work. It means having conversations—first with colleagues and then with family, friends and provincial politicians—about what Alberta’s education system could be if teachers had time to plan creative lessons and collaborate with colleagues, smaller class sizes that would allow them to build relationships with students, adequate supports for inclusion, and the professional autonomy to make decisions in the best interests of their own practice and of students. Let those outside the profession know what is required in order to ensure that all teachers have the best possible conditions of practice and are able to do their best work with students. For information on how to talk about your work, contact your local.

Your NSC will carry the message to the bargaining table and the Association will advocate for conditions of practice provincewide—but that is not enough. Teachers who are truly concerned about their conditions of practice should stay informed about bargaining, attend their BUGM, participate in surveys and votes, and educate the public and their MLA about their work and what they require in order to do that work.

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