She’s the worst.
Ok Herr Marlaina, Princess of the Republic of Alberta within the broader United States (in her dreams)
“This strike made us look bad so we don’t want to negotiate anymore. Capitulate and we’ll think about it”
Yeah, that’s what I’m hearing. “Stop doing the thing that gives you the most leverage over the situation and we’ll discuss the thing we could have taken care of a year ago.”
The teachers were in school for a very long time before the strike and you didn’t listen then. Why would anyone think you’re going to listen now if they go back to work.
Reminder: this is a US-owned paper
Yeah, I saw the source and cringed a bit. Sorry, shoulda found a different site.
No judgement here, thanks for posting! Just a critical news consumption comment. Gosh, if the world were as competent at critical reading as those on Lemmy are…
Striking is the only leverage they have, making it the only viable means to have their demands met.
Almost. They are also rumors of going back with a ‘work to rule’; no after school sports, no field trips, no clubs, no productions, nothing but straight classroom instruction time and that’s it.
Marlaina Smith is so fucking stupid
Not as stupid as AB voters.
Yeah… I mean those that elected her
This is not a black and white issue. On one side the teachers are definitely facing classrooms that are increasingly more complex. There are more kids who have individualized programs, there are more kids who have English as a second language, and there are more with mental health issues. Teachers dont have the resources to deal with EVERY need and still be able to cover all the curriculum they are required to teach. They do need more help, even more than a wage increase.
On the other hand, the government also knows that a 12% raise for all teachers over 4 years is not unreasonable, (and some would get up to 17% as the grid would be equalized across the province giving a bump to some lower paid divisions) but they dont want to commit to classroom size caps because of the additional cost of constructing new schools and the extra staff when they already have committed to building 90 new schools and spending nearly 9 billion on those projects. They committed to funding 3000 more teachers but finding them and more Educational Assistants is going to be tough.
They also know that there are other unions looking at what the nurses got (20% over 4 years) and what the teachers are asking for and then looking at the budget, which is projected to be over 6 billion dollars DEFICIT and know that if EVERY union asks for that much more the deficit is going to be considerably more next year. That money has to come from somewhere and no one likes higher taxes.
Then you gotta add in the political factor that the ATA and the NDP are closely aligned and this isn’t just teachers vs the gov, there is definitely a UCP vs the NDP subplot going on as the NDP looks toward gaining ground for the next election.
And then we get down to the basic right to strike. Using the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back is definitely problematic and its caused the union and the government into a showdown. NOT the best way to negotiate, but it looks like neither side wants to budge so its going to come down to who’s got the bigger club. If other unions join the teachers like they’re threatening to it could get quite disruptive for everyone.
None of this is cut and dried and neither side is totally right or wrong. As in all politics, its a balancing act.
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