Palliser School Division teachers have voted in favour of authorizing the Alberta Teachers’ Association to apply for a government-supervised strike vote. (File photo: LNN)

By Justin Goulet

Palliser teachers give thumbs up to authorize strike vote

Feb 14, 2024 | 3:14 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Teachers within the Palliser School Division could be going on strike.

At a meeting attended by over three-quarters of members on Monday, February 12, 2024, teachers voted 92 per cent in favour of authorizing the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) to apply for a government-supervised strike vote.

A strike vote is a vote taken among employees in a unionized workplace to authorize a strike. A strike vote is not a vote on whether or not to actually call a strike or an immediate pause to negotiations and/or operations. If the vote is successful, it provides the option for workers to go on strike.

Monday’s vote came after Palliser teachers rejected the school board’s last offer in local bargaining.

Natalie Townshend, Palliser’s ATA local president said, “Palliser negotiators said there would be no bargaining table to come back to if teachers rejected their offer.”

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“It was a threat that our teachers did not take kindly to, and they strongly voted that offer down. At the end of the day, it offered no noticeable improvements over the status quo.”

She added that teachers are looking to address concerns regarding substitute teacher recruitment and retention, as well as compensation for teachers who work in colony schools.

Townshend stated, “We are expecting over 400 teacher days this year where teaching positions will go unfilled. When this happens, classes are combined, and teachers are pulled away from doing work to prepare for lessons.”

She said, “Sub shortages have a real, significant impact on the quality of education students receive.”

Townshend noted that teacher bargainers “are offering solutions to these problems that are low cost and consistent with settlements achieved in every other school division across the south of the province.”

She is encouraging school board bargainers to return to the bargaining table, “or the ATA will be forced to ask the mediator to write out of the process and initiate next steps toward strike action”.

Townshend remarked, “If the board refuses to negotiate, we have no other options left.”

For teachers in Alberta, collective bargaining is a two-phased process. Matters of significant cost and broad impact are negotiated at a central table. That is followed by local talks between individual school divisions and ATA bargaining units on other, more locally-specific matters.

Officials said that teachers in the Palliser School Division have been working without a finalized collective agreement since September 2020. The division employs about 700 contracted and substitute teachers in public schools in Coalhurst, Coaldale, Picture Butte, Vulcan and surrounding areas, in addition to 17 Hutterian colony schools and 10 alternative schools in Calgary.

PALLISER SCHOOL DIVISION RESPONSE

LNN reached out to the Palliser School Division.

Board chair Lorelei Bexte’s statement is as follows:

“Palliser School Division feels a very fair deal was put forth to our teachers after many days of bargaining and mediation. Every effort was made to reach a fair deal. The Division strives to ensure both the students and teachers are considered during local list bargaining. This is a negotiation of local terms only as the larger central table will determine provincial wide terms.

We deeply value the work of our teachers and all our staff to support our students. We will continue to work towards a resolution and positive labour relations with the ATA.

While we are disappointed that the membership did not agree to the Division’s offer, we respect the decision and will leave it with the ATA’s Bargaining committee to determine next steps.”

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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