“After announcing its intention to strike last week, the ATA provided its members with a document titled ‘Talking Points’ for teachers to use when speaking to parents and students about the current bargaining situation.
“The document falsely claims that the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) does not have the mandate to ‘negotiate on important issues such as class complexity, class size, support for students.’
“There are also other statements in the document that are misleading and confusing for parents, teachers and most importantly our kids, who are explicitly targeted by these communications.
“To be clear, the only item outstanding between the ATA and TEBA for a new contract is the union’s additional salary demands.
“TEBA’s most recent offer to the ATA included a guarantee to hire 3,000 more teachers over the next three years at a cost of about three-quarters of a billion dollars. This is what the ATA asked for in its previous offer and government’s response met that request. The parties are no longer disputing negotiations on that point.
“The current offer provides a salary increase of at least 12 per cent over four years with more than 95 per cent of teachers receiving more through a market adjustment, and would result in the best deal for teachers in all of Western Canada.
“The information in the ATA document is inaccurate. It intentionally misinforms the public, parents and students. TEBA has been left with no choice but to launch a legal challenge. The Alberta Labour Relations Board received our complaint today, asking the ATA and its president Jason Schilling to immediately retract their false claims and to stop using Alberta’s students and families for leverage in a bargaining dispute.
“The ATA’s leadership and communications strategy targeting families and children with false and misleading claims raises serious ethical concerns. The government must now correct the false narrative the ATA has created.
“I look forward to a speedy resolution of this complaint with the Labour Relations Board. When we have our resolution, we will consider next steps.”