To Whom it Concerns
I am a member of both the ATA and the UCP. Within both the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the United Conservative Party I have sought to advocate for the other organization. I am viewed suspiciously in both. It shouldn’t be like that. Both the provincial government and the ATA have a legitimate role to play with respect to education in this province. I believe that both organizations fail to recognize and honour this simple fact.
It did not take long for the UCP and the ATA to find themselves on a collision course with one another. Prior to the UCP being elected the rhetoric among members of the ATA leadership was decidedly negative. Jason Kenney fanned the flames of discord with criticism of the provincial curriculum which was written primarily by teachers.
Early in the government’s mandate it unilaterally decided to move the management of the teachers pension plan from the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund to the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo). Late last year the ATRF regained control of investment direction with respect to these pension funds.
Recently the government passed Bill 15 which takes responsibility for teacher discipline from the ATA and gives it to a commissioner working at arms length from the government and at more than an arms length from the ATA.
It is interesting to compare the United Conservative Policy Declaration to these actions by the United Conservative government. The party policy book includes the following propositions:
divide the two main arms of the Alberta Teachers Association, union and professional body, into two separate and independent organisations
prohibit any professional body charged with regulating Teacher/Principal certification or professional conduct and practice from conducting activities related to:
collective bargaining;
the administration of a collection agreement; or
any matter under the jurisdiction of the Labour Relations Board
create a self- governing professional regulatory association for Alberta Teachers that is responsible for Teacher/Principal
certification;
professional conduct and practice
professional qualifications
continuing teacher competency
The Policy Declaration makes no mention of the teachers’ pension plan and it does not suggest taking discipline out of the hands of the teachers. These were actions of the government which were not in concert with the directions of grassroots members of the party as expressed in policy. Furthermore, neither of these actions formed part of the UCP election platform in 2019.
While many teachers expressed displeasure with the idea of separating the collective bargaining function from the professional functions of the ATA, these UCP grassroots proposals still leave the responsibility for discipline, certification, qualification, professional conduct, and professional development with teachers. There is no notion of an arms length commissioner to be found in the policy declaration. In fact, there is nothing in the proposal that prevents the two new organizations from collaborating or even both maintaining offices at Barnett House (ATA headquarters).
There is an argument to be made that it is the collective bargaining function alone that strains the relationship between the ATA and the government. It is possible to imagine a self-governing professional association to which every teacher in the province must belong in order to practice teaching in Alberta. That is not presently the case. Private school teachers, for example, do not have to belong to a self-governing professional organization, association, or society in order to practice their profession. A professional organization, unencumbered by the tensions of collective bargaining, can maintain good and fruitful relations with the government, regardless of which party holds a majority of seats in the legislature. This sort of teachers’ association could work with the government on such things as curriculum, class size, innovation, etc. This sort of organization could command respect for the teaching profession in a way that a collective bargaining unit cannot.
Teachers have a rightful interest in educational matters in the same way that lawyers have an interest in the court system and doctors are concerned about the healthcare system. Similarly, the government is elected by the people and does have rightful jurisdiction over education in the province. It is not only right for teachers to respect that, but it is wise to acknowledge it. When a new government is elected, it would be wise for a professional teachers’ association to listen carefully to the priorities of the new government and lend a hand with building the best education system possible while respecting those priorities. It is time that teachers recognized that being adversaries of the government has not worked well for us. Unions will normally have adversarial relationships with their employers. A teachers association without an arsenal that includes job action will have opportunities to accomplish many things that presently seem to be beyond our reach.
If the UCP government and the ATA were not so intent upon perpetual acrimony with respect to each other, perhaps they could find common ground. One example might be the United Conservative desire for small government and small bureaucracies. Is this not something the two parties have in common? Don’t both the UCP and the ATA want more money to get to the front lines so that the only people in the system who are truly essential are the principals, teachers, educational assistants, librarians, and secretaries who work in the same building where the students gather every day? Don’t teachers and MLAs agree that it is problematic when the people with all the power in school jurisdiction offices protect their own jobs while at the same time cutting front-line positions. Can teachers and government officials stop sniping at each other long enough to recognize that we mostly agree there is overspending somewhere in the system and that this overspending does not (generally) occur in the building with all the kids in it.
Both the United Conservative Party and Alberta teachers have an opportunity in the coming months. The current leadership race will be a time of rebranding and reprioritizing for the party. It must be a time for the party to call into question its relationship with teachers. It can also be a time for the ATA to rethink its relationship with the government and open itself to a new way of doing business; one which will allow it to accomplish some of its professional goals. If both parties will listen to the other and consider how an idea which immediately seems distasteful can be turned into an opportunity for a conversation and potentially collaboration. Whatever polarization we may have embraced which makes this conversation impossible, let us all agree to discard that.
To those who aspire to become the new leader of the United Conservative Party I offer this challenge; reinvent the relationship that this government has with the educators and health care workers in this province. At least reach out. Apologize if you are complicit in the current state of the relationships. Return to the UCP policy declaration and the principles therein for guidance and discard whatever axes your predecessors had to grind.
To teachers and UCP members, it can be a new day if only we choose to seize it.
Sincerely,
Rob Duiker
Rocky Mountain House
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