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From the Smoky Lake Signal, April
10, 2002. Volume 24, Number 47. By e-mail the message spread across Alberta from student to student: join a province wide walkout, 11:00 a.m. Thursday, April 4. The response was low in most areas, but in schools throughout the province, handfuls of students stood up and walked out. They were protesting the provincial government's imposition of Bill 12, the Education Services Settlement Act, which this year forced striking teachers back to work. What sparked the strike was the teachers' reaction to the bill, withdrawal of their voluntary services. Track and field events throughout the province are being disrupted, some field trips cancelled - no Imax movies, no swimming, no music concerts. Some teachers have taken home the resources which they bought with their own funds, as a way of visibly demonstrating to the parents the state of underfunded schools. Some teachers have withdrawn from board committees which meet after school hours. Some teachers in the province have said they won't help at grad dances, others have stopped supervising school dances that are held outside of school hours. Some have even rearranged parent-teacher interviews so they fit in the regular school day, or they'll take time off for doing the interviews after hours. There is little else the teachers can do. Bill 12 has stripped teachers of their collective bargaining rights. The bill enforces an arbitration tribunal to be set up that will only consider wages and benefits. In the preamble to the act, the government said that it is already planning to review the education system and study classroom conditions. Class sizes and student teacher ratios are not to be part of the collective settlement. Some of these clauses were previously negotiated in good faith, when the teachers bargained with school boards. The provincial cabinet ordered the teachers from 22 jurisdictions back to work. They complied, went to the courts and the back to work order was overturned. The government had failed to demonstrate that the strike was really causing a public emergency, as they said. March 4, ATA President Larry Booi met with Premier Ralph Klein. The premier agreed to bring the caucus and cabinet together for a discussion on two approaches, either an arbitrary process, or establishing a commission to investigate teaching conditions. March 11 instead the government introduced Bill 12. It imposes a highly restricted form of binding arbitration on teachers and stripped the working condition clauses from the collective agreement. The act says that organizing a work-to-rule campaign is expressly forbidden, as are any more strikes or lockouts. The ATA's position is that voluntary services are by definition not duties of employment and can be withdrawn. It's all they had left. According to an ATA analysis of the act, what defines a strike is very broad. It includes even "a concerted activity by two or more employees to refuse to comply with responsibilities assigned by their principal or employers". Little wonder no students and certainly no teachers want to take responsibility for the student led strike. Strike at HAK "We just walked out," said the students of HAK. Morgan Williams said the teachers should get more money. If they get more money, they can teach us better. Brian Hart said "We won't get any proper sports. Say we want a scholarship for sports. Now we can't. No after school activities. This is stupid. And we've lost the youth center too. When we had the youth center, we were sitting there playing games, taking easy without getting in trouble. Now we're getting into trouble every day." One of the students noted he just got off suspension. Another group of grade 8 girls said they walked out because classes are getting too large. When they do split them up, they give one of the classes a better teacher and the other one gets a teacher who has never taught before. "It's stupid. Our teachers didn't even go on strike, so why do we have to miss out on our dances and other sports. It's not fair," said Amie Sochatsky. "Why should politicians get more money," said Katrina Elliot, "and we get zero for fundraising. It's stupid. We need money because education is a lot more important than the politicians." "We have dozens of e-mails from friends all over saying they were going to strike," said the students. Athabasca and Boyle were out. At least five schools in Edmonton walked out. Redwater School walked out. Is the president of the Alberta Teachers' Association taking away our privileges to use as a crowbar to get what he wants? In a way, he's kind of using us kids, and that's a bad thing, said one of the Grade 8 students. Nathan Taylor reported that out of his school of 900, Queen Elizabeth High in Edmonton, 40-50 walked out. They joined other students from a variety of schools, and marched down to the Legislature. He got there early, and with his chums got a tour of the legislature. Counting seats in the house, they could see the problem - no opposition. Two ND, seven Liberals and the rest Conservatives, not only on one side of the house, but filling up most of the opposition side as well. No wonder they got the bill through without debate. By the time the tour was over, there was no leaving by the front door of the legislature. The steps were filled with hundreds of students with "Ralph Klein sucks" signs and the kids shouting "De-Klein", filmed by the media. Students rushed the front door, pounding on it. Security guards said they would call the police and have them arrested if they didn't back away. They did, two were arrested and released. Some played soccer in the frozen pond. After an hour's chanting, they went home. At H.A. Kostash School a parent volunteer struggled with the question of the strike. "Should I allow my children to support the teachers? Should they miss out on school?" The classes went on regardless of the strike. Principal Bruce Hinkley, when asked, said that two junior high students brought notes from their parents saying they support the student strike and walked out. The rest stayed. In high school, eight students walked out of the 250. Their names are recorded. Secretaries phoned their homes to tell their parents they had left without permission. Why so few? Principal Bruce Hinkley spoke at a junior and senior high assembly the day before to discuss the pros and cons, and it was basically left up to the students. Mr. Hinkley told the students that although the teachers appreciate their support on the negotiations and on Bill 12, the student strike was not well organized, it didn't have enough advance publicity and shouldn't be done unless the students had lots of discussion and debate ahead of time - letter writing or telephoning to MLAs. Talk to the school board first, before you decide to have a wildcat walkout. With a $10,000 fine for teachers organizing strike, they did not participate in the student protest. This one was student driven, and they used the technology of the internet to do it. For the most part the student body agreed with the principal and stayed in school. But social studies classes later that day saw tremendous classroom discussions on pros and cons of demonstrations, unions and binding arbitration. The losses at HAK, from the teachers no longer volunteering, other than dances, are limited to track and field, and it was likely a no go anyway, since even at the start of the year when teachers were asked to sign up for which sport they wished to coach, nobody picked track and field. HAK teachers, despite the strike, have said anything they already committed to they will carry on. Badminton will continue, field trips, attendance at Citadel productions, all volunteer activities, will continue.
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