The Alberta government has ordered more than 50,000 teachers back to work through legislation tabled late Monday afternoon using the notwithstanding clause.
The Back to School Act, or Bill 2, legislates the terms of an agreement that members of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) widely rejected in September which included a 12 per cent salary increase over four years, additional market adjustments of up to 17 per cent for most teachers, and the hiring of 3,000 teachers and 1,500 educational assistants.
Financial penalties are also included in the act for non-compliance and suspends local bargaining during the agreement to ensure labour stability through 2028.
“This legislation ensures that no further harm is done to Albertan students, and there is an immediate end to the strike,” said finance minister Nate Horner at an embargoed press conference Monday. “It also invokes the notwithstanding clause to help ensure stability for the school system moving forward.
“Invoking the notwithstanding clause is a serious decision, and one this government does not take lightly, but it is necessary.”
Organizations that do not comply with legislation will be ordered to pay $500,000 per day while individuals will be fined $500 per day of non-compliance through the Alberta Labour Relations Board.
The legislation will prevent strikes at general and local levels to prevent job action and lockouts across 61 school boards in Alberta.
“The notwithstanding clause in this case preserves the sovereignty of the legislature to act in the public interest, and we believe that it is in the public interest that students return to classrooms as soon as possible,” said Justice Minister Mickey Amery.
ATA president Jason Schilling called the bill a “travesty to our democracy.”
“This is a broader conversation for all Albertans: if they’re willing to do this for teachers around collective bargaining for our schools, for our students, for the people who work with them, then they’re will to do it for everyone else in this province,” said Schilling after the bill was tabled.
“This is a sad day for teachers. This is a sad day for Albertans to have a government that is willing to trample on your Charter Rights for their own purposes,” he said. “We’re on a slippery slope.”
Schilling said the ATA is in talks with lawyers about next steps.
“If they think, by what they have done here today, is going to quiet down the tens of thousands of voices of teachers across the province, then they’re sorely mistaken.”
New Democratic Party leader Naheed Nenshi said it was unnecessary for the province to use the notwithstanding clause to get teachers and students back into classrooms.
“They had many tools to do it. They could have not had legislation at all under the existing labour relations code. (Smith) could have put in legislation, as has been done before, without the notwithstanding clause and let the courts make a decision,” said Nenshi. “Why did the premier do this? She did it because she wants to be a bully.”
Premier Danielle Smith said that students and teachers will be back in the classroom Wednesday after missing 16 days of school in the longest education strike in the province’s history.
“The end of the strike does not bring an end to the teachers’ concerns raised through the bargaining process,” said Smith at a press conference ahead of Monday’s session. “We are addressing those concerns head-on.”
Smith said the province will be implementing a “Class Size and Complexity Task Force” to collect data and solutions for safer classrooms.
The province received a draft of a final report done by the Aggression and Complexity in Schools Action Team, which conducted virtual and in-person sessions with teachers, education partners and school boards between July and September.
The final report is to be released in November and will implement solutions to gather more data on classroom complexity and also begin work to replace the 2004 Standards for Special Education, said the province.
Last week, Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) warned the United Conservative Party government to not use the notwithstanding clause after the province announced legislation would be coming Monday.
“They’ve escalated this dispute from a confrontation between the government and teachers into a confrontation between this government and the broader labour movement – not just here in Alberta, but across the country,” said AFL president Gil McGowan outside of the legislature Monday.
“By invoking the notwithstanding clause in the context of labour relations, this government has done something that no other government in this country has done before.”
Leaders of all of Alberta unions, united under the banner the “Common Front,” will meet Tuesday to “hammer out a strategy for responding to Bill 2,” said a statement from the AFL Monday evening.
The strategy will be unveiled at a news conference on Wednesday.
“Make no mistake, the UCP has just launched a war against workers,” said the statement. “It’s not a war we wanted, but it’s one we must win.”
Smith said she hopes the labour union would understand the “uniqueness” of the situation.
“I don’t think people should draw some sort of general application that this is the approach we would take in every instance of labour action,” she said. “I think we’ve demonstrated that we defend the right to strike.”
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) said it stands with teachers in condemning the province’s legislation.
“Bill 2 crushes the teachers’ right to collective bargaining and sets a dangerous precedent for workers in this province,” said AUPE president Sandra Azocar in a statement.
“The Alberta Government’s use of the notwithstanding clause is reckless, authoritarian and ideological overreach.”
Horner said no other unions are in a legal position to strike currently.
“If they’re proposing wildcat illegal strike action, there’s severe consequences at the Labour Relations Board for those actions,” he said.
Through the bill, more than 50,000 teachers and 750,000 students will be back in class Wednesday.
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