A historic teachers’ strike has begun in Alberta. With 51,000 teachers on strike, this is the largest teachers’ strike in the history of the province, and the first since 2002.
After decades of wage erosion, and channeling money from public schools to private schools, teachers in Alberta have gone from being some of the best paid in the country, to some of the worst paid. Schools are crumbling and class sizes have ballooned out of control.
Therefore, this strike was inevitable at one point or another. Teachers could take no more. The fact that they voted 95 per cent in favour of strike action and voted down two bad contracts shows that they have had enough and want to fight.
This struggle is serving as a lightning rod for the discontent of working class Albertans. On Sunday, Oct. 5, 18,000 people demonstrated with teachers in Edmonton. Thousands more rallied in Calgary and other cities across the province.
The Alberta Common Front—an alliance of public sector unions—has also pledged support. It released a solidarity statement in which it put Danielle Smith “on notice,” stating: “If you take on one of us, you’re taking on all of us!”
The teachers undoubtedly have the vast majority of the population on their side with even radio show hosts and prominent celebrities posting on social media supporting the teachers.
Meanwhile, the government is doubling down, locking out the teachers on Tuesday. Premier Smith has also been trying to win public support by paying parents $30 per day for enrolling their kids in online school. This essentially is a form of online scabbing.
Danielle Smith’s modus operandi has been trying to find a scapegoat to distract workers from the disaster that her government has been for working people. Whether it’s Ottawa, trans kids, immigrants, vaccines, the book ban or environmentalists—she has to some degree found success in diverting anger away from the real culprit: her government and its capitalist backers.
The teachers’ strike shows in practice that Smith is not fighting for working Albertans. She’s fighting against them!
How we can win
The strike is underway. The population is behind the teachers. But the Smith government seems hellbent on crushing the teachers and sending a message to the rest of the labour movement. With economic uncertainty and rising government deficits, capitalist governments all over the country and the world need to break the backs of the labour movement to silence any resistance to their agenda.
What this means is that this struggle can only be won if we force Danielle Smith to back down.
However, the leadership of the Alberta Teachers’ Association has tended to shy away from confrontation. For example, twice now, the leadership of the union has recommended bad deals which proposed to accept a paltry 12 per cent wage increase over four years instead of the demand of 34.5 per cent. Both times this was rejected by the membership, with over 89 per cent voting the deals down. There can be no more backsliding from this demand.
It is the heroism and willingness to fight from the rank-and-file teachers that has pushed the leaders forward and given them no other alternative than to launch this strike.
In a struggle like this, with a government hellbent on crushing us, the only strength we have is our numbers. The mobilizations must be escalated and ramped up with mass pickets shutting down every school and mass rallies galvanizing the population against the Smith government.
However, so far the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) leaders have organized no picket lines. Nor have they announced any rallies or any other kind of mobilization.
Teachers must not be left alone at home! Whether it’s pickets at individual schools or mass rallies, teachers must be brought together in a show of force.
Broaden the struggle!
The crisis in schools affects every working class family. And, win or lose, the teachers’ struggle will set a precedent for future strikes. A victory for teachers is a victory for the entire working class.
Therefore, the Common Front and every single union in Alberta must mobilize their members in support of teachers. Already, the educational assistants refused to be used as scabs against the teachers. But this solidarity must be extended. Whether it means supporting picket lines, solidarity rallies, collecting strike funds or organizing sympathy strikes, Danielle Smith is no match for combined forces of the labour movement!
Defy back-to-work legislation!
It is likely that Smith will try using back-to-work legislation to put an end to the strike, as her justice minister has already floated the idea.
If she does, we cannot back down. The ATA must be ready to defy. As the Air Canada flight attendants, and the Ontario Education workers before them have shown, when these anti-democratic laws are defied, they become a dead letter.
The Common Front solidarity statement rightly promises that “if [the government tries] 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 […] That support will only be amplified if any efforts are made to strip workers of their constitutionally protected right to strike.”
These words must be followed up by action. The moment back-to-work legislation is brought in, the Common Front must declare a general strike to support the teachers and defend the right to strike.
Teachers must decide
The dam has burst. The mass demonstrations on Oct. 5 showed the tremendous support and enthusiasm around the strike. This is an occasion to beat back Smith’s austerity that cannot be missed. Everyone in the union who agrees with the need for a mass mobilization and a fight to the finish needs to apply maximum pressure on the leadership so they don’t back down.
Far too often, trade union leaders have called off strikes, only to recommend sellout deals to their members. Quite often, the demoralization of being demobilized rules the day and the workers reluctantly vote for the deal because they don’t see another way forward. This was the case with the PSAC workers a few years ago.
Increasingly however, we have seen a string of unions reject bad deals recommended by their union leaders. Such was the case with the Vancouver port workers, the Ontario Metro grocery store workers and the Air Canada flight attendants.
But even when the workers reject the deal, as the troops have already been demobilized, going back on strike is less likely. Only after nearly a year of being legislated back and being forced into arbitration and rejecting those deals are the postal workers now back on strike fighting a desperate struggle.
This speaks to a vital issue at the heart of the trade union movement: rank-and-file democracy.
The only people who should decide when this strike ends are the workers themselves. The teachers’ strike cannot be called off—even if a tentative agreement is reached—without a democratic discussion and vote by the teachers.
We must revive the genuine traditions of workers’ democracy in the unions. It is the only method that can fight against attacks from capitalist governments and stop capitulations from the union leadership who have only led us down the blind alley of eroded wages, slashed benefits and crumbling services.
A new period of class struggle
A new period of class struggle is opening up in Canada. The country’s economy is in a dire state and both the federal and provincial governments are trying to pass the bill to the working class.
The postal workers are fighting an existential struggle against Mark Carney’s austerity. The B.C. public sector workers are in the fifth week of their strike against the NDP government. College support workers in Ontario are striking against drastic cuts. Alberta healthcare workers are also gearing up for a strike.
This is only the beginning. A victory for the Alberta teachers would reverberate all across the country.
We must prepare for this period by bringing back the revolutionary and militant traditions of the labour movement. That is what communists fight for.
