12-05-2025
‘It wasn't good enough': ATA rejects mediator's proposal, enters cooling off period
Jason Schilling, Alberta Teachers' Association President, speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about their contract negotiations with the province
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: Why was it that a majority of your members voted to reject the proposal?
Jason Schilling: We traveled the province, in what we call our member information meetings, and predominantly we heard two factors addressing classroom conditions: class size, and the needs for our students, which you've heard me talk about time and time again.
It just wasn't there, it wasn't good enough, and then also salaries as well. Teachers were looking forward to ways to make up for losses, to pass inflation, many years of zeros that we have taken, and to address current inflation as well.
So there are different areas there the teachers felt that this mediator's recommendation just wasn't good enough, and they weren't happy with the status quo, and voted accordingly.
MH: Eighteen though had recommended acceptance.
JS: Ultimately, yeah, but at the end of the day, teachers have the final say in what they will accept and what they won't accept, and as members of council, we will lead our members through that.
MH: In the minister's words, there's a substantial component to address classroom complexity. Is it as simple as moving the pieces around?
JS: Well, I wish it was that simple. It just simply is not. We have been chronically underfunded for years. We are the least funded in all of Canada when it comes to spending per student, per capita and operation spending.
Budget 2025 did not see an increase to the base instructional grant. So status quo and underfunding is something that has been going on for years, and it's going to take a lot more to dig ourselves out of the hole so that we are actually meeting the needs of our students day in and day out, which my members will say they're not.
MH: The government indicates $400 million in the deal to improve classroom conditions, and the government's also committing $8.6 billion to build 90 new schools. So if there's cash there, what's still missing?
JS: Well, the $8.6 billion to build new schools is not part of this, that's infrastructure, and those schools aren't going to come online for another three, four, or five years. We need to address the concerns that are happening in our classrooms right now. The class sizes that are increasing, my colleagues are like, 'We've never seen class sizes this big'.
We have schools that are teaching classrooms in boot rooms, in hallways, in stages. We don't have the means to meet our students needs day in and day out. We need more resources. So to say that we're going to put this money in when the budget was substantially lower than where it needed to be, we needed to see a budget in 2025 of $11.35 billion to just be the Canadian average.
This budget was $910 million short of that target. Just to make us the Canadian average in terms of spending. That's how far behind we are right now.
MH: You're in a cooling off period for 14 days. What is the process beyond that? What happens at the end of 14 days?
JS: At the end of 14 days, we'll go into a step the association has, which is an authorization for a strike vote. We'll go to our members and we'll say to them, 'Would you like us to proceed forward with the strike vote?'
If they vote in favour of that, then that will be the next step after that.
MH: So how quick could that come?
JS: It could come as soon as the 14 day cooling off period is over, and that started [Thursday].
MH: So that means a strike in 14 days is possible?
JS: No it means an authorization for a strike vote and then once you have that, then you go for the strike vote. Then you have other steps there that are laid out, and it's all through labour code. It takes a little bit of time, obviously, but we'll work through the next steps as they come to us.
MH: The ATA has roughly 50,000 members. If it is that there is a strike, how do you gauge the impact of that magnitude province wide? What would that look like? Would it be an actual strike? Maybe that is the better question. How could you potentially respond?
JS: These decisions will be made by provincial executive council. We'll strategize, and we'll analyze, and we'll look at what our next steps are, but it's not something that I'm going to lay out for the media right now.
MH: In terms of possibles, could it be a strike? Could it be teachers refusing to do certain elements day-to-day?
JS: Members of council will decide what strategies we use moving forward when it comes to making these decisions.
MH: The education minister says the government is prepared should you walk off the job. What do you think that would look like?
JS: I was on strike in 2002, I know exactly what that looks like, and I know exactly what it takes, the courage to do that, to step forward into that realm.
Our membership made a no on the mediator's recommendation and so they're looking for more from this government. I know the minister will say, 'We'll see what they have to say', but this is a conversation that needs to happen between both parties, and we will have those conversations moving forward willingly.
MH: In reviewing some of the coverage this week, you've expressed a willingness to work towards finding an agreement, so where is the process at, and how would you how would you rate the prospects of a successful outcome to avoid a strike?
JS: Right now we're in the cooling off period, and so we will take this time to re-evaluate . They can have talks, but I'm not sure if we've got anything on the schedule right now in terms of the next week, but there's always a chance to have talks with both sides through the whole process.
