A teacher's strike is looming in North Central schools. School Boards in the Counties of Athabasca, St. Paul, Thorhild, Smoky Lake, Two Hills as well as Glen Acon School and St. Paul Regional High school School in St. Paul have reached a deadlock in negotiations with the teachers.

The 400 teachers will hold an official strike vote in their schools on February 19th.

In a first place for the Trustees they've suggested the unresolved issues in a 13 month old labour dispute be sent to a binding arbitration board. That would see the school trustees pick a rep, the teachers pick a rep, and those reps pick one more. The three would decide the issue.

The Alberta Teacher's Association on behalf of the North Central East teachers wants a 6% increase in salaries and allowances over 24 months. That works out to 3% per year.

It's thought the final offer by the School Trustees was zero percent increase for the 1987 - 88 contract and a 3% decrease for the balance of the contract. The offer was made at the end of negotiations by the trustees negotiator to the teacher's negotiating team as they were heading down the elevator. A hand written note with the offer was sent to the teachers at Barnatt House, the home of the union. But the teacher's existing collective agreement means they'll earn an average of 1.3% more this year and another 1.6% more next year, due to increases built into their salary grid. That is only for those teachers who have not reached maximum increments on the grid. ie, for teachers who have not taught for 10 years. After that any other increases are through contract negotiations.

As well the teachers want more contributions to their health plans, an early retirement incentive plan 0 which would provide lump sum payments to retiring teachers, a guaranteed number of paid leaves per year for professional improvement, paid time off from school to do business for the Alberta Teacher's Association, a plan into which the teachers can put 20% of their annual salary so that after five years a teacher could take a year off with pay, and they want one month off with pay for each three years of service upon attaining 15 years of service with the School Board. Trustees are confused as to just what that means. Some have worked it out into a five month holiday.

The North Central East School Authorities suggest there just isn't any more money to pay teachers. Over 60% of the teachers in the area earn between $40,400 and $43,300 with an additional $2,300 in benefits for their 9 months of work per year.

The teacher's demand for a 6% salary increase would cost the Boards throughout North Central East a total of $850,000 per year. To recover this cost from local school taxes would mean a 12% increase. The Alberta government grants which pay 63% of school funding in the County of Smoky Lake were reduced from the period of September 1, 1987 to August 31, 1989. Education Minister Nancy Betkowski announced a 2% increase for the 1988 - 89 year, that's after a 3% decrease last year and doesn't take into affect inflation.

In this battle of dollar signs the trustees note that teachers in the North Central East School region teach fewer pupils than the average in Alberta. School enrollment in the County of Smoky Lake has declined by 189 students in the last five years.

In the North Central East region 40 teachers would lose their jobs if the average teacher pupil ratio was attained. Nine would be lost in the County of Smoky Lake.

The teachers in North Central East Authorities District feel they are one of the lowest paid teacher groups in the province. They rank 83rd in a pay scale out of 85. They feel they are being used as a test case by the Trustees to see just how low they'll settle. The minus 3% offer is not a real offer.

In the last strike in 1984 they were out for 8 days. By a close vote they went back. Again it was the fear of lost teacher positions which sent them back to the classrooms. They were told that 50 teaching positions would be lost due to the number of native children switching to reserve schools.

If the vote February 19th is to go on strike teachers must wait two weeks before hitting the picket lines on the first of March.

In 1985 teacher's salaries in the County of Smoky Lake made up 59.5% of the county's school board budget. In 1986 it was up to 62.7%. In 1985 provincial grants handled 66.9% of the county's school board budget. Local taxpayer paid 23.8%. The federal government for the native students paid for 6.6%. Rentals counted for 1.9% of the county's revenue. In 1986 local taxes increased to pay 24.2% of the school board budget. Federal revenue paid 9.8%, rentals 2.3%. Provincial grants decreased by 3.9% of the total budget.

Teachers in North Central East maintained they have been paid less since 1983. At that time they were $698 below the provincial average, in 1984 $884 below. In 1985 an average teacher in the North Central East region earned $910 less than the average teacher in the province. In 1986 the gap narrowed somewhat to $573 less, the average $767 per year.

Over a span of 30 years that would amount to $23,000 for an average teacher, based on four years of university and 10 years teaching experience. Approximately 60% of the teachers fall into that category. The teachers maintain that not only is it a loss of yearly income, but they'll end up with lower pensions too, at the end of their career.

As at the end of 1986, average teacher's salary for a category 4 teacher at maximum earnings is $40,438. The 1987 increase has yet to be settled, as is the '88. The average income for a category 4 teacher earning maximum levels in the province at this date is $42,039. That puts area teachers $1,601 behind the average settlement at this point. They would need a 3.95 increase to bring them up to average.

See other stories from the same Signal issue:

Smoky Lake Signal, March 23, 1988

The teacher strike continues. On Tuesday, the teacher sponsored meeting at the Complex drew a large number of parents. The Trustees refused to come. Chairman Pat Palechuk in a letter to the ATA local said they would not participate because it wasn't chaired by a neutral party ("format and intent... does not provide equitable participation in discussion") and she was scheduled to go to a town council meeting that night.

A dozen parents continued their "back to school" demands after the teachers meeting that night with a demonstration at the Provincial Building where the teachers and trustee negotiators were meeting - or more typically not meeting but sitting in separate rooms on separate floors "caucusing". At least that's what they were doing at 11:30 p.m. when the picketers without signs filled the front lobby of the building.

The group agreed to move outside when asked to by local school board Chairman Pat Palechuk. She passed on the parent's message to the government negotiator that they wanted to talk to the bargianers. The teachers never came out, the trustees did. Chairman of the negotiating team Steve Bidulock wanted to know what the parents wanted, should the board pay more or was the 5% offer enough. For the parents the offer was generous enough. But they did want the kids back to school.

The Alberta Trustees Association negotiator Mac MacDonald said they were going to stick to the 5% offer and said so to the teachers but were willing to negotiate with the timing of the increases.

(Editor's note: Mathamatically that means within a 5% offer over 32 months, the Board offer in real money could change from a few hundred dollars payment by offering the increase at the end of the 32 month period to close to $5000 per teacher by paying the whole 5% from the earliest moment the contract had lapsed. Through negotiating the timing of the increase the teachers could get more than their 7% demand in real cash increases while the board politically looks like it's holding the line. The key figures are not percents but increased dollars paid per teacher over the length of the contract. ie, There is still lots of room to have either side look like or not look like they are giving.)

The parents at the late night protest got their message across to the teachers up on the second floor rear room of the provincial building. As the group chanted "Arbitration" and "send our kids back to school", a disturbed teacher bargaining group snapped off the lights and pressed noses to the window to peak down to see who was in the parking lot below.

Two parents with flash lights shown them up on the teachers. After a short vigil the parents left. (It was later learned the mini demonstration was set up by the trustees, who called a number of parents who had earlier called them with concerns over the strike. The parents were told others were at the provincial building demonstrating. All it did was move the negotiations back into the city for the next round. The teachers negotiators complained about the noisy parents shining  lights in the windows).

Wednesday morning MLA Steve Zarusky arranged a meeting with Labour Minister Ian Reid. Thorhild parents had asked to see the minister in hope he would legislate an end to the strike. The MLA called the Smoky Lake Board and suggested Smoky Lake parents could meet with the minister at that time too.

As they drove into the city the parents and trustees heard on the radio what the minister would later tell them in person. Basically both sides, teachers and trustees were stupid about negotiations. The minister called on both sides to reach a quick settlement of the dispute.

"The parties need to see some sense and understand their primary purpose is to educate students" said Reid. "They should understand that while they may have a dispute with the employer the innocent third party is the one that's suffering. Both parties are holding students hostage," said the Labour Minister. The delegation from Thorhild and Smoky asked Reid to introduce binding arbitration to bring a quick end to the dispute. Reid told them he had no plans to intervene. He has a settlement deadline in mind but wouldn't say when.

Thursday, there was some negotiations. The teachers downgraded their position from 7 per cent to 5.5 percent. The trustees then increased their offer to offer 5.5%, up .5%. The teachers agreed to accept it. Both agreed on a 0% increase for the first eight months of the contract but the teachers wanted a larger percent increases earlier in the contract to put more money in their pockets. The trustee negotiators loaded the contract to pay the greatest increase at the end to save taxes.

Accepting the present contract would give the average teacher with 4 years education and 10 years experience an increase of $2,275 over the 32 months of the contract. The yearly salary will rise from $40,438 to $42,713 by January 1989. The $799,292 increase is split amongst the 315 teachers.

According to the teachers that amount in actual dollar increases for the boards is 3% above the 1986 levels.

The teachers refused the board's offer and at 11:15 p.m. tabled a "further modification of their earlier position in an attempt to keep the talks going". They asked fro their health care benefits to be put back on the table. The trustees didn't respond. At every negotiation meeting they had given a little more - now this. They wanted the teachers' bargaining committee to take the boards' offer back to the 315 teachers. The meeting adjourned within 15 minutes. Negotiations have ended. No further talks are scheduled. It's been 15 months of negotiations and 15 days of students out of school as of Monday.

On Friday the teachers' strike committee decided not to take the offer back to the individual teachers. At the Sunday, March 13th meeting of teachers in the complex the educators voted not to meet again until the bargaining committee had an offer the committee was willing to accept. This committee didn't accept this one.

Trustees met Sunday at the Smoky Lake county office to ratify the offer and call it the end position. "The position exceeds the mandate recently given by parents and ratepayers at public meetings and provides a substantial improvement to the association offer last weekend. They see no further need for meetings with the Teacher's union and await ratification by the teachers so the schools can be reopened," said Trustee Negotiator Mac MacDonald.

The trustees had thought the teachers' negotiators were going to take the offer to the 315 teachers but hadn't been contacted. The talks broke down late Thursday when the teachers upped the ante this time by wanting to have the health care benefits added into the negotiations. After the Athabasca teacher settlement dropped any improvement in the benefit almost two weeks ago the teachers of North Central East did too. Now it's back.

Last week's offer to the 310 teachers would have cost the boards and taxpayers $611,000. The latest board offer is $799,292, up $188,000 from last week's 5% offer. The teachers describe it as "a very slight increase viewed as inadequate by the teachers".

The teachers have asked for a raise as high as $1,100,000 over the 32 months and are now down to #1050,000. Paying for hte board's first offer will mean a 14.6% increase in the school requisitions for the boards in North Central East. (For the County of Smoky Lake an increase of 9.7%) The icnrease will be 19.2% in school requisitions if the teachers most recent requests is granted. The big tax hike will be in the 1988 tax bill since the 1987 settlement and the first of the 1989 increase will have to come out of it. The increased wages will continues in the future.

The teachers say they have dropped from 7% to 5.5% a drop of $300,000. The trustees see it as from 6.25 to 5.5. In dollar amounts the request have dropped $50,000.

The latest offer in what really counts, dollars, is what the teachers wanted over 20 months when the strike first began. The board is offering over 32 months. The teachers won't accept because they've been on strike for 14 school days and are out of pocket on average $185 per day for each of the 15 working days the strike has run as of Monday - total $2775 per teacher. (Each teacher did earn $805 worth of strike pay during that period.) The 315 teachers in the bargaining unit, lost a total of $874,125 in pay and reduced their union's strike pay account by $253, 575. The only winner is the provincial treasury which hasn't had to pay out the grant in that time. The losers, besides the teachers, children and tired of having the children home parents include the merchants in the north east region whose tills would have sooner or later jingled when those salaries were spent.

The strike has become a waiting game. The board's initial offer  of minus 5 percent galvanized the teachers into a unified firm stand. The teachers though did not realize the amount of parent and taxpayers support the boards had in refusing an increase on over $40,000 salary in these tight times. The stand off continues.

Smoky Lake Signal, March 23, 1988

Letters...

I would like to express a few of my own personal comments regarding the teachers' strike.

First, the school board's original offer of 5% pay cut retroactive could not really be considered a serious offer. Did the School Board really expect the teachers to accept this offer and if they didn't, why propose it? It was a waste of time. Payroll backs may be the order of the day, but retroactively - this seems totally improper?

Secondly, the comments around the community about the teachers - useless, incompetent, greedy, irresponsible, poor doers, uncaring for the children and uncommitted to the system are disturbing comments. The disturbing part is that everyone is using teacher's competence as an issue in the strike. Personally, I am proud of the job our teachers are doing and I don't think their teaching competence should be questioned. The issue is dollars and cents, not performance. Those School Board members who openly say, during the course of this strike, that the teachers are uncommitted and uncaring hopefully will not change their opinions after the strike for fear of being held in comtempt of their positions.

Thirdly, the teachers have worked one year without a contract. The teachers say that they would settle for the exact same contract Athabaca received, which involves backpay for 1987, the year without a contract. The School Boards says no money. But where has all the money gone.

The teachers get paid 2-3% less than 98% of all other teachers in Alberta. The elementary French program has been cut, teachers numbers have been reduced and we can't make ends meet. If the issue of transferring $115,000 to the capital budget from the operating budget (which is designed to pay teachers) is there, it was a scheme designed for only one purpose. Let's ask why it was done?

I dare not say that teachers make too little money but the biggest screw up will be if a settlement cannot be reached at a local level, a mediator will step in and probably award a settlement similar to Athabasca - the most recent percent.

There can be no winner, no loser, this is not a game. Let's get serious, put pressure on both sides because after all how stupid is this. It is a legal process perfectly within the law and let's all act responsible.

Let's settle this salary wise as per other teachers in the province - then let's work on a provincial system to ensure moderation of teacher's salaries throughout the province. This is the only sensible way to do it.

Ernie B. Doktor

D.V.M.