Alberta teachers withdraw from talks with boards, province

The union representing the province's teachers is proposinga four-year deal that freezes teachers salaries for two years before a four per cent pay hikeover the final two years.

"We want to ensure labour peace and stability in Albertas schools and we recognize the Redford administrations desire to be fiscally responsible," said Carol Henderson, president of the Alberta Teachers Association, which represents42,000 teachers.

Teachers have been without a contract since the beginning of September.

Todayteachers announced they arepulling out of talks with Alberta school boards and the province aftermonths ofnegotiations, saying "further progress is not possible."

The education minister has already rejected the proposal without explanation so theyareshopping the deal directly to Premier Alison Redford,Henderson said.

Education minister surprised

But Jeff Johnson said he was working towards a province-wide deal by the end of next week and was surprised by the teachers' decision to walk away from discussions.

"I believe we were fairly close," he said Friday.

The ATAproposal would freeze teachers salary grids in 201213 and 201314 and limiting further increases to one per cent in 201415 and three per cent in 201516.

There would be no strikes or lockouts for the duration of the agreement, extending the ATAs record of labour peace to nearlya decade, Henderson said.

Henderson said teachers will be reluctant to accept the deal unless workload issues are addressed.

The proposal includes measures to reduce the time teachersspend on non-instructional taskssuch as volunteering andsupervision, she said.

"Increased use of technology, increasing diverse classes, inclusion of students with special learning needs and growing expectations that learning will be personalized are making teacher work more complex and more demanding," said Henderson.

"Our proposals on professional development and workload will focus teachers on student learning while laying the groundwork for a more flexible, individualized approach to education," she said.

While Johnson agrees,he said he rejected a proposalof a"hard cap" on how many minutes a teacher can work each day.

He also rejected the notion of a "comfort letter" where the government would agree not to look at any changes to regulations, standards or legislation during the term of the agreement.

"I'm not going to agree to something that's going to essentially neuter the legislature or take away the abilities of MLAs to do their jobs."

Teachers are coming off a five-year deal reached in 2007. They received a4.4 per cent pay increase last year.