Government double crosses teachers with punitive "arbitration"

Jim Selby, AFL Staff

[Edmonton] After defeating the government’s back-to-work legislation in court on March 1, 2002, the Alberta teachers Association gave Premier Ralph Klein a golden opportunity to resolve the underlying funding issue that caused the teachers’ strike.

Instead of using the court ruling to re-institute their legal strike, the Alberta teachers remained at work while negotiating with the Premier about a resolution mechanism to end the dispute fairly.

"From the beginning, teachers have been concerned about classroom conditions, fair salaries and initiatives to recruit and retain teachers," said Alberta Teachers Association President Larry Booi. "It is important that the arbitration process provide an opportunity for all three concerns to be raised. By returning to their classrooms, teachers have provided the government with an opportunity to put into place a process that is fair, open and independent.

Now, the government has forced the teachers into an arbitration process that is unfair, closed and completely controlled by the government and school boards. Under Bill 12, the Education Services Settlement Act, no award may cause a school board to run a deficit (or increase a deficit position that already exists). This means that the government’s budgeted 4% and 2% for teachers salaries is basically imposed by law – because that is the source of school board revenues. Furthermore, no contract may specify hours of work, student-pupil ratios or classroom size – the very issues at the heart of the education crisis are excluded from the arbitrator’s purview. And, it appears that any contracts that do have such provisions will have them stripped out!

The Bill makes it illegal for teachers to strike for the next two years or to conduct any kind of work slowdown.

"This is not an arbitration process," charged Alberta Federation of Labour President Les Steel, "it is assault and battery with a legislative gun!"

"The government has mugged the teachers and made a mockery of free collective bargaining," said Steel. "How can any arbitrator render a fair or impartial decision when the only thing he can consider is the employer position on wages – without even any chance to address all of the serious classroom questions."

"The government has given in to anti-teacher caucus hardliners and to a strong lobbying campaign from the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA).

The teachers are furious with the double-dealing. "They have just kicked the hell out of classroom teachers," said Booi.

"The government has really dropped the ball on this one," said Alberta Federation of Labour President Les Steel. "They had a chance to deal with the serious lack of education funding in a fair and impartial manner. They could have said: ‘okay, an independent review says we have to put in more money, so we will’. But instead they have kicked the teachers and students in this province in the teeth by sweeping classroom problems under the rug and by destroying teachers’ chance for a fair wage settlement," said Steel.

Steel also suggested that the ASBA has blundered badly by providing the government with an excuse not to address the real cause of the problem. "They should have supported as broad and independent an arbitration process as possible – and if the arbitrator agreed to teachers’ salary and working condition proposals, it would have been up to the government to provide the necessary funding."