{"id":274100,"date":"2025-10-03T08:35:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T08:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274100\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T08:35:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T08:35:16","slug":"as-alberta-teachers-strike-looms-both-sides-in-the-dispute-say-its-up-to-the-other-to-restart-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274100\/","title":{"rendered":"As Alberta teachers strike looms, both sides in the dispute say its up to the other to restart talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

With talks stalled and just days to go until Alberta\u2019s teachers go on strike, their union and the province agreed Thursday on one thing \u2014 it\u2019s up to the other side to pick up the phone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always interested in having negotiations and returning to the table and talking about the issues that teachers want to see addressed through the collective agreement,\u201d Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers\u2019 Association, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s whether or not government is willing to come to the table with some serious intentions to address those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said the ball is in the union\u2019s court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still very happy to engage in negotiations,\u201d the minister said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are ready and standing by to receive any additional proposals or thoughts from the ATA union leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIf the two sides in the Alberta teachers dispute fail to come to an agreement, teachers could walk off the job at 12 a.m. on Monday.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Both Schilling and Nicolaides confirmed Thursday that further negotiation talks haven\u2019t been scheduled ahead of Monday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n

The he-said-he-said comes as the union and Alberta\u2019s government remain at a stalemate over several concerns, mainly wages and working conditions.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, nearly 90 per cent of union members who voted rejected the province\u2019s latest offer, leading to Monday\u2019s strike deadline.<\/p>\n

A walkout by the union\u2019s 51,000 members would impact more than 700,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe provincial government says it will hire 3,000 more teachers to address concerns over increasing class sizes, but the teachers union says that\u2019s just a drop in the bucket compared to what\u2019s needed.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The rejected offer included a 12-per-cent pay raise over four years, a government promise to hire 3,000 more teachers to address class sizes and money to cover the cost of a COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Nate Horner has long said it was a good deal.<\/p>\n

Schilling said Thursday the hiring figure in the offer is a drop in the bucket compared to what\u2019s needed, noting that the province needs to hire at least 5,000 more instructors to align with student-teacher ratios.<\/p>\n

Those ratios, based on government figures released in 2002 when teachers last went on strike, vary by grade level.<\/p>\n

Kindergarten to Grade 3 classrooms would have 13 children per teacher, while those for junior high and high school would sit at 27 students per teacher.<\/p>\n

It also included a model and a formula to address complexity, Schilling said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at those targets and the equal numbers, we are probably about 5,000-plus teachers behind what should have been hired by government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t3:51
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta Teachers\u2019 Association warns education system \u2018unsustainable\u2019 after talks break down\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Asked how much of a difference those extra hires would make compared with the government\u2019s offer, Schilling said it would be significant. He wouldn\u2019t commit to bringing that number to the bargaining table.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, where you have schools that might have a class that\u2019s 42, you could hire another teacher to split that class,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have large classes of 35 that have a lot of needs within that classroom, but you don\u2019t have the ability to split it, you could have two teachers working in that room \u2014 schools would be very creative with how teachers could be utilized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicolaides said he hadn\u2019t heard the 5,000 figure before but said \u201cadditional ideas are welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for student-teacher ratios to address class sizes, he said the government is taking steps, such as building and expanding schools, hiring teachers and educational assistants, and increasing wages, noting the \u201cdramatic\u201d increase in the number of students enrolled in Alberta\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is on taking real, tangible and meaningful steps to increasing capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With talks stalled and just days to go until Alberta\u2019s teachers go on strike, their union and the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":274101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[104595,138499,2147,407,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-274100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta-teachers-association","9":"tag-alberta-teachers-strike","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115309322293420421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}