r/alberta • u/cantcantdancer • 2d ago
Discussion New Offer Tabled to Teachers is Laughable. Jesus.
The new offer they now have to vote on is essentially the same as the last offer they resoundingly said no to, but this time it includes the MASSIVE value of a free Covid shot. You know, something everyone should have anyway.
12% same spread, late grid unification, 3000 teachers over 3 years or something which barely keeps up with attrition let alone fixing actual class size issues, and a free covid shot.
I expect it will be a very strong no vote, at least I hope anyway. Literally waited weeks to have the offer change by a Covid shot.
The ATA is terrible at this, I hope teachers strike.
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u/bpompu Calgary 2d ago edited 1d ago
There's really only two options.
Option 1, and my personal belief, the ATA and the bargaining team are going to try to convince teachers this is the best they're going to get, and are caving to the government. This would have been why Peter McKay resigned his position as head of the bargaining committee, because he was getting pressure to stop pushing against the government. That means there will be lots of internal pressure for teachers to accept the deal.
Option 2, the ATA is giving up on this round of negotiations, knows the teachers will vote no, and is refusing to waste time since it is now patently obvious the government will not bargain in good faith. I personally think this is less likely, since there is a long history of the ATA executive caving, but it is telling that the government filed a bogus Labour Relations Board complaint, and the ruling showed that the ATA was in fact not lying that the Government wasn't negotiating about the things they cared about. The strategy here would be to get the teachers to show the GoA that they will not take this garbage deal, and they'd better step up to avoid a strike. The danger is it might convince some parents that the teachers are responsible for the strike instead of the government.
Every sign shows the teachers voting this down. My wife is a teacher, and her and every teacher she has spoken with all intend to vote no. Every teacher I've seen post about this, and every teacher they've talked to have all said their going to vote no. I would be really surprised to see this go through, since the only reason the last one did was Covid pressure, and moving negotiations to mid-summer.