Alberta teachers have rejected a deal with the provincial government, paving the way for a province-wide strike beginning on Oct. 6.
More than 43,000 of the 51,000 public, Catholic, and francophone teachers voted online between Sept. 27 and 29, with 89.5 percent rejecting the provincial offer and 10.5 percent voting to accept it.
Schilling said the union is open to further negotiations this week but teachers will be hitting the picket lines as of next week if a tentative agreement is not in place.
“The proposed agreement failed to meet the needs of teachers, failed to improve student classroom conditions in a concrete and meaningful way, and failed to show teachers the respect they deserve,” Schilling said. “Teachers … are taking action because the crisis in our public education schools can no longer be ignored.”
If the promised walkout by teachers, vice-principals, and principals occurs next week, it will mark the largest teacher strike in Alberta history and will interrupt class time for more than 700,000 Kindergarten to Grade 12 students across 2,500 schools.
The offer rejected by the union included a 12 percent salary increase over a four-year period and a government commitment to hire 3,000 more teachers and 1,500 new educational assistants to tackle large class sizes and “classroom complexity pressures,” according to the province.
The deal also proposed transitioning most teachers to a unified pay grid in September 2026, which would have provided more than 95 percent of educators a wage increase of up to 17 percent. The proposed salary increase is identical to those in the recommendation rejected by teachers in May.
Teachers salaries have risen less than 6 percent during the last 10 years while the cost of living in Alberta increased by nearly 21 percent, the union said.
Finance Minister Nate Horner said he is “disappointed” with the vote and blamed union leaders for the result, saying they are not explaining clearly what teachers want.
“With two failed ratification votes, I am left questioning whether the union fully understands what their members are seeking. If teachers did not want this deal, then why was it proposed by the ATA in the first place?”
Horner said more than 50,000 new students have been added to Alberta’s education system in the past two years, making the proposed provincial investments “needed now more than ever.”
“It is now up to the union to determine its next steps,” he said. “I encourage the ATA’s leadership to take time to meet with their members and gain clarity on what teachers are seeking out of a deal. Students and families deserve stability.”
The Opposition NDP’s shadow education minister Amanda Chapman said the education system has been pushed to a “breaking point.”
Horner said the province is committed to reaching a fair deal with its teachers “so we can keep our kids in school.”
Smith, Nicolaides, and Horner are set to share details on “financial and educational supports available in the event of a teacher strike” during a Sept. 30 press conference slated for noon local time.
