Yesterday the Alberta Teachers Association issued the following media release.
Teachers employed by the Edmonton School Division have voted 97 per cent in favour of authorizing the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) to request a government-supervised strike vote.
This action followed the rejection of a proposal by a third-party mediator to settle local negotiations in Edmonton Public. Teachers who gathered at the meeting held Sunday evening voted 91 per cent in opposition to the mediator’s recommendations.
“Yesterday’s turnout of support for the bargaining team sends a very strong message to the school division. When the board has the ability to improve working conditions, like they do with online teachers, and refuses to do so, teachers feel undervalued. Last night our members indicated that we stand united with them.”
—Heather Quinn, president of Edmonton Public Teachers’ Local No 37
Quinn said the mediator’s recommendations were turned down because…
To continue reading, visit https://teachers.ab.ca/news/edmonton-public-teachers-authorize-strike-vote
What was interesting about this release was the fact that one of the labour issues in question was:
Quinn said the mediator’s recommendations were turned down because they didn’t offer enough improvement for teachers working in online learning or for those teaching summer school and night school. The position of the school division to treat different types of teacher work as less valuable than others is seen by teachers as being quite disrespectful. (emphasis added)
Essentially, one of the major complaints about the compromise proposed by the mediator was that it implied that online teaching was less valuable than face-to-face teaching!