It’s good that that’s over.
The wrangling over devising the newest contract for Alberta teachers is now over, with the Alberta Teachers Association’ and Alberta Education having reached an agreement.
Although all terms of the agreement are not out in the open yet, the main details are — it’s a four-year contract, with a three-year wage freeze followed by a two-per-cent pay hike in the fourth year.
Now, even though the ATA negotiating team has approved the proposed contract and will encourage its members to do the same, this entire process may not be at an end.
Teachers could still vote not to accept what is presented.
However, that’s a situation that remains in the hypothetical realm. For now, it’s best to look at what this new contract means for Alberta.
For parents, it means four years of not having to worry about teachers starting work-to-rule campaigns as a bargaining tactic. It also means the likelihood of a strike is substantially reduced.
For students, it means they can continue to receive some of the best education in the world for four years without fear of interruption.
For teachers, it means they are free to continue doing what they love — helping Alberta’s children grow up to be well rounded, intelligent individuals who will be the leaders of tomorrow.
In short, it’s a chance for the education system to continue to chug along, teaching what needs to be taught, without unnecessary and costly breaks.
Of course, some people will look at the wage freeze and claim it’s the big, bad government oppressing its teachers. Any time the public sector takes a pay freeze, or worse, a pay cut, those claims can be heard.
But when Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec is saying the main issue in the negotiations was classroom time and not money, it makes it fairly clear the pay freeze was not a concession.
It very well may have been, as we were not at the negotiating table.
But when all parties involved are talking about how this contract gives the education system some much-needed stability, it’s perhaps true the monetary aspect was agreed upon early in the process.
