Teachers in Alberta have been on strike for three weeks. They’ve courageously stood up to defend public education. They’ve endured lie after slanderous lie from the United Conservative Party (UCP) government. And now premier Danielle Smith has announced that they will pass back-to-work legislation on Monday. The only way for teachers to win is to defy this legislation.
And they have the momentum and support to do so. Yesterday (Oct. 23), 30,000 people demonstrated in Edmonton, in defence of the public education system and in support of the teachers. This is possibly the biggest rally in Alberta history. This is a historic opportunity to defeat Smith and her anti-worker agenda.
A fight to save public education
The teachers’ demands are just: better wages to make up for inflation and, most importantly, caps on class sizes—something almost every other province has. Alberta, the richest province in Canada, has the lowest per-student education funding, and classes with more than 35 students have become the norm.
Yet, the UCP has not given any ground. Smith has categorically refused to consider class-size caps. She did not even respond to the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s latest offer. Instead of negotiating, Smith has banked on using back-to-work legislation to solve her teacher problem. Clearly she cannot be reasoned with.
This is for a simple reason: Danielle Smith wants to destroy public education. She has dug in her heels because she wants to expand the private charter school system. Her government has increased funding for private and charter schools by 10.3 per cent this year, compared to just 4.5 per cent for the public system, with 7.3 per cent needed to keep up with inflation and population growth. Public schools are crumbling under the strain.
The teachers’ strike has turned into a fight to save public education—a fact which was reflected in a sea of red flags reading “save public education” at yesterday’s rally. If the teachers are defeated, Smith will be emboldened to accelerate her private school agenda—something which crumbling public schools cannot take. So a defeat for the teachers would be a defeat for all working class families.
No other road
If Smith’s government succeeds in breaking the strike with legislation, the contract would probably go to binding arbitration. But even here, the UCP will tip the scales. On Oct. 17, the government tried to end the strike by offering “enhanced mediation” to the teachers. That offer contained a clause which meant the mediator would not be allowed to consider class caps.
The UCP will set the same narrow limits for arbitration as well. In fact, this is exactly what Ralph Klein’s government did to teachers in 2002, when they were on strike for the exact same reasons.
If the teachers don’t defy, it would mean the end of the strike. Then the only road open to the ATA would be to challenge the legislation in court. This is exactly what they did after the 2002 strike. They eventually won in court, but no class size caps were implemented and nothing fundamental was solved.
Mediation, arbitration, and complying with anti-strike legislation—all these roads lead to more degradation of the public school system.
If the ATA leadership does not defy, many workers will rightly ask themselves: What was the point of the strike? Why sacrifice so much just to roll over at the decisive moment?
ATA president Jason Schilling has said, “we will not be intimidated and ruled by threats that attempt to force us back to work and away from our principles.”
Schilling is correct; there is no reason to be intimidated. Other workers have successfully defied in the past.
Air Canada flight attendants just demonstrated that back-to-work orders can be defeated with defiance.
And in 2022, Ontario education workers defied back-to-work legislation. The labour movement mobilized and threatened a general strike. Within a day of the illegal strike, the Ontario government withdrew the back-to-work order with its tail between its legs.
All the conditions for victory are there. This is the biggest strike in Alberta history—involving 51,000 teachers. And if the ATA defies, there is no doubt that they will have mass public support. On top of the huge rally yesterday, a significant majority of Albertans support the teachers.
The Common Front must act
This mass support needs to be mobilized. The labour leadership must act. The Alberta Common Front—which includes every major union—foresaw this exact situation in their solidarity pledge:
“We the under-signed unions want to make it clear to the provincial government that if they try to break these workers or strip them of their bargaining power through the use of aggressive tactics like lockouts or back-to-work orders, they won’t be just taking on the unions in question, they will be taking on all of us.”
The Common Front has announced that everyone “ready to resist” should prepare for a “provincewide day of action” on Tuesday, the day after back-to-work is scheduled. But what this “Day of Action” entails is unknown.
Now is not the time to be vague. The Common Front leadership must pledge to start a general strike the moment this law is passed.
It has every interest in doing so. The teachers’ strike has become a turning point. A defeat for the teachers would be a heavy blow to the entire labour movement. Twenty thousand HSAA health-care workers are said to be in “preparation mode” for a strike. Fifteen thousand AUPE Nursing Care workers will vote on a possible strike on Oct. 30.
At the rally yesterday, AUPE president Guy Smith referred to the danger of a “domino effect” of attacks on labour rights, if the strike is put down. That is the reality. A victory for the teachers would show the way to every other union, and even scare the government into agreeing to better deals. But a defeat for one of the most powerful unions in the province would clear the way for the government to run roughshod over every public sector union.
The stakes are as high as they’ve ever been, for teachers and the entire labour movement. The only force that can stop Danielle Smith is the working class.
Defy the back-to-work order!
Victory to the teachers!
General strike to defeat Smith!
