General strike it is then.
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
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exactly this... call their bluff
There damn well better be.
Useless Clown Party strikes again.
These idiots need to GTFO of office.
This is NOT what the notwithstanding clause is meant for, and at this point needs to be removed if idiots are going to use it like this.
The fact that they enforced financial penalties is sickening.
Abuse of the NWS has been progressively normalized over the last few decades, and I think we've reached the breaking point.
Yeah.
Threatening to use it to remove bike lanes in Ontario, using it to take away rights from gay kids in Saskatchewan, using it to break strikes.
Just disgusting.
Agreed. It has to go.
And it might even work. We're comfortable people here in the West and not really wired to take bold, scary action to protect ourselves.
The union really should ignore the fines. I'm not sure what the province could do to force them to pay up, maybe something, but I think there's a good chance they could get them rolled back after they win anyway.
Doug Ford tried this in 2022 and passed a law with the notwithstanding clause...
And when the other public sector and private sector unions got together and said they're ready to take action, Ford backed down and repealed the law.
The Supreme Court should just come out and say provinces can't use Section 33 in Canada when they don't feel like collective bargaining.
BCGEU was on strike for months and Eby's government handled it properly. Now they have a tentative agreement to be ratified by members. Kinew's government is putting together a law making it transparent to people through a court opinion to list what rights are being abridged before legislation involving sec 33 was passed. Kinew also called out right wing government's liberal use of section 33 to drive wedge politics.
There is a case the federal government is bringing right now where they argue the NWC can only be used for a limited time in crises. Which is good, because that section of the Charter is quickly becoming the only one that matters, and having no rights is a bad thing.
Idk if it would work the same way but when this happened in BC many years ago and the gov tried to impose penalties on the teacher's union, the union took them to court and won all of that money back.
Christy Clark did Not use the Notwithstanding Clause.
She legislated a contract into being, and that was determined to be illegal.
Ah okay, I did not know that. Thanks for the correction. That's really shitty.
Why do govenments in this country seem to think workers' rights are fun little playthings that can be taken away as punishment if we displease them? That's not how any of this fucking works.
Workers' rights exist because large, angry, violent mobs demanded them. And we're not going to let them be taken away.
because all the political parties and politicians here in Canada don't actually care about the people. Unlike other places where their politicians pretend to care, here in Canada they will straight up tell you they don't care. Here it's all about how we can make as much money as possible while pleasing our corporate benefactors and they will straight up tell you that's exactly what they're doing. They don't hide it because they don't need to hide it.
I mean hell just look at the whole return to office, bike lane, and rental shit here in Ontario. they didn't sugar coat any of that and straight up said "businesses in Ontario and specifically in Toronto want you back in the office, they don't want bike lanes, and they want to make more money from rentals so that's what we're going to do. here are studies on all of the above which were provided to us by said businesses."
Welp, looks like shit's about to get crazy here. This is an absolutely maximalist response and basically daring the other unions who hinted at a sympathy strike to do it.
The most corrupt provincial government in Canada doing what it does best.
Astonishing that anyone could make Doug Ford look good in comparison but hey, here we are!
seems like danielle is worst than doug?
Not by much. Doug at least sometimes walks back on his poor decisions when enough pressure mounts, but heβll still appease his donors by fucking the people one way or another.
Bill 2 sets financial penalties of $500 per day for individuals who defy the back-to-work order and up to $500,000 for the union per day, if it doesn't comply with the legislation. The bill also suspends bargaining at local tables until 2028.
If the other unions back them like what happened in Ontario in 2022 when Ford did that same this could end quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Students_in_Class_Act#Repeal_and_aftermath
Yes. Alberta's unions should realise that this is the END of the union movement if they allow it to stand.
This power can be used against private sector unions too.
If I were a teacher, the financially responsible option would be to leave teaching altogether.
What fine could be paid by a union with no members?
Did you mean to leave teaching, or to leave the teacher's union?
I meant to find another profession entirely.
Similar to when employees get fed up at a store and one day the place is closed with a sign in the window saying everyone left. The difference being the ease of replacing retail workers compared to replacing teachers.
There would incredible consequences if even a tenth of the teachers exited the purview of the ATA, let alone all of them. Unfortunately when Albertans continue voting for these overzealous politicians, any consequences are going to be strenuous and difficult to sympathize with.
Interesting idea. But not very realistic. I know a lot of teachers (5 in my immediate family and I used to lead over 40 of them at my school) and they all chose the profession because they love kids and they see this profession as noble and building something for the future of the province. I highly doubt a single one of them would consider leaving over this dispute. They're very loyal to their students.
Oh I agree, and I didn't mean it to come off as some realistic plan. I don't know any teachers that would leave the profession either. I'm not even suggesting that a significant amount of teachers would leave under the circumstances the ATA finds themselves.
I'm only saying that I would leave if pressed into these circumstances. 'Teaching' doesn't necessarily mean working at an elementary or secondary school. It would of course be an emotional transition to make, but loyalty to individual students - or even a specific school - and loyalty to the concept of imparting knowledge are different forms of loyalty.
Alberta has been successful in bringing more people - students among them - to live in the province. Unfortunately, not much has been done to prepare for an increasing population. Specific to teaching, this can be seen in classroom sizes ballooning out of control. Not only is compensation inadequate for the additional responsibility of handling more students, but now the quality of the education the students receive is diminished.
Even as a cog, I couldn't be loyal to a machine that permits this to happen when the solutions to these problems are so obvious.
I didn't mean for this to be so long, it just really bothers me when society treats teachers like third class citizens while also entrusting our children to their care.
So now workers' rights in Alberta are a constitutional issue? How is this legal to use?
Anything is legal when no one stands up to stop you.
An absolute abuse of power.
Wow, they're not even using this and forcing binding arbitration, they're literally imposing the agreement they rejected.
NWC is a mega shitty thing to do and they should never be elected again because of it (but that won't happen), but then also imposing the deal they rejected makes that even worse.
Not that I condone the use of NWC but at least putting it into binding arbitration would have shown some willingness to further negotiate and work on it while still maybe getting teachers back to work (assuming no wild cat / sympathy strike)
The UCP is short-circuiting democracy. They're supposed to be elected to represent the people. Their role is to carry the constitution and the legal protections afforded within. But here, the government is acting in bad faith.
They're not negotiating with the teachers. There may even be good grounds to suggest that the government never intended to negotiate in good faith because they contemplated the use of the NWC.
By invoking the NWC, as you say, the UCP are not pushing parties to further negotiations or arbitration. They're just telling the teachers and the students that you have no rights, you have no other choice, and there's no option to go to court.
The UCP have committed an affront to freedom of expression, and collective bargaining across the country. There may not be any other logical choice but to strike.
So frustrating to witness this. This provincial government is a clown show.
I'm really torn on this one. I understand both sides of the fence on the dispute - I used to be a fully accredited AB teacher and at that time our school was not part of the Teacher's Union, so we worked for considerably lower salaries than the unionized teachers. Which was inherently unfair.
But we also had a very strong relationship with our board and we understood the reasons for our low pay so there was direct communication and a very strong agreement that we were all in this together and the money just wasn't there to do any better on our salaries.
Now teachers (including those at my old school) are unionized and much better paid and have considerably better benefits. That's fair.
But at the same time, I'm still not a huge fan of the unions. I do think the government did try to meet the teacher's demands as best they could given the current economic situation and staring down a 6 billion deficit. They have promised 90 new schools, 3000 new teachers, a 12% increase to every teacher and up to 17% for those who were in lower paid divisions. It's not chicken feed.
On the other hand using the NWC to end the strike AND impose massive fines for violators AND making any further strike action illegal for another four years feels like a union busting move. I'm not thrilled about that even if I'm not pro union. It seems like overkill and a taunt to other unions to go out on wildcat strikes. Very tense times ahead.
I feel for the teachers in the middle of all this tension. They are getting a raise but quite a few of them are going back disgruntled. There will be considerable tensions among staff as not all teachers are pro union and those who are just happy to be back at work aren't likely to speak up. It's still pretty messy all around.
Thanks for sharing your opinion even though it's probably not a popular one here.
The budget crunch is not because of the teacher's union, but because Alberta's government has tied its finances to the reciprocating motion of the oil pumpjack and refused to diversify or embrace other industries.
I think the inherently unfair part was your underpayment, but since you are free to dislike unions, then I suppose it is the price you paid to be on friendly terms with the board. Banning peaceful organizing through withholding labour using the NWC is not only sticking it to unions. It's an attack by the UCP on the rights and freedoms of every working person, union or not.
LMFAO the amount of union cope in this post is WILD.
"I used to work for an non union school and we got fucked by the government. Luckily they sent someone down to convince us this was okay. Then after I left the teachers there realised it's NOT okay, unionized and immediately got the same better pay that I was told simply wasn't possible. Now the government is trying to fuck the teachers again including by the tyrannical use of the NWC and the unions are standing up for it but I'm confused, could it be the unions were good all along and the government was bad?!?"
Bro, I'm sorry you were so easily separated from the fair wages you deserved and could have had if you were unionized. We need unions to protect teachers like you, who are willing to give up their fair wages for a sad story. The very same gentleness that likely makes you great with kids is used by the government to exploit you. You need protection from people who are going to fight for what you deserve from a government who has been fucking teachers over from day one.
Edit: in case it helps the reason the teachers union is refusing the agreement isn't wages, it's because they want a class size limit. As a teacher you should know what it's like teaching classes of 35+ kids. The government won't budge because they don't care about teachers or kids. They see teachers as overpaid government funded babysitters so parents can go to work, and the more kids they can throw in a class the cheaper it is for them.
No, we didnt get f'd by the government and we weren't exploited. We CHOSE not to join the ATA or become public schools because we didnt agree with the imposition of a curriculum that didnt align with our values. Therefore we were given no funding.
The gov has since realized that there are thousands (about 5% of the student population) that are in the same position and rather than not fund them they now give partial funding to the over 200 independent schools in AB.
Its definitely a compromise on both parts because now those same schools also have to conform to some of the very things that kept us from accepting the funding in the first place. The adage is accurate: "You take the governments shekels means you take the governments shackles" Its better for the teachers but it did involve compromises.
I'm not in Alberta, but pay doesn't seem to be the sticking point here - the union is trying to negotiate on class sizes (which AFAIK the province is refusing to even disclose) and classroom supports.
Class size is not a simple matter.
In elementary grades most kids are together for every class. So a Grade 1 class with 25 kids has 25 kids. But by senior high there are lots of options. You might have 30 kids in English class but only 15 in Biology and 10 in Band.
And complexity is even trickier. A class of 30 kids of at similar skill levels is far easier to teach than a class of 20 that has 10 kids who dont speak English as their first language and 5 who have individual planning programs and 2 who have severe behavior/mental health issues.
So saying class sizes must be capped at x number is not a simple measure at all.