Alberta teachers file complaints against province, allege bad faith bargaining

The union for Alberta’s teachers says it has filed an unfair bargaining complaint against the province, accusing it of making “bait-and-switch” claims about hiring new teachers during a recent labour standoff.

The filing to the Alberta Labour Relations Board alleges unfair bargaining practices from the Teacher Employer Bargaining Association. There are similar grievances filed at each of the 61 local bargaining units.

“These actions are necessary because the government has attempted to rewrite its own commitments,” Jason Schilling, the head of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, told reporters in Edmonton Friday.

Schilling says they were misled during contract negotiations when the province promised 3,000 new teachers to address crowded classrooms and teaching complexities. The union considered those new teachers to be on top of the 3,000 already promised in the current budget.

Schilling said the government is now changing its story to claim the original 3,000 positions promised in the budget are the only new ones coming and is looking for government assurance that it will double to a net 6,000 teachers.

“They used it to create an illusion of significant new investment in classrooms,” Schilling said.

“It means that the new teachers Albertans were promised will not be there to reduce the overcrowded classrooms that students still find themselves in.”

Schilling said the government was also offside in bargaining through public comments questioning the motives of union leaders intended to “create a wedge” between them and rank and file members.

The Alberta government legislated 51,000 teachers back to work at the end of October to end the three-week strike. They also imposed a collective agreement previously rejected by teachers.

In passing the back-to-work bill, Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives also invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to override teachers’ rights and shield the bill from legal challenge. The teachers are challenging that move in the courts anyway.

Asked for a response Friday, the office of Finance Minister Nate Horner said the intent of the bill ending the strike “was to get our kids back into the classroom.”

Horner’s office added, “We understand the ATA has filed a challenge regarding hiring commitments. We will respond to the challenge in due course, and we look forward to this matter being resolved.”

Smith’s government has since imposed the Charter override three more times to legally shield three other laws dealing with transgender citizens.

The clause is considered an exceptional but constitutional way to balance the authority of the governments with the courts. Once invoked, a government must renew the clause after five years.

Schilling called the government’s use of the notwithstanding clause “an abuse of authority that sidesteps democratic accountability.”

Schilling also criticized what he called the government’s “shifting explanations” for using the clause on teachers.

When Smith invoked the clause, she stressed it was about ending a strike that was harming students’ mental, social and educational well-being.

But Schilling noted Infrastructure Minister Martin Long recently told constituents the bill was also passed because the government could not risk allowing an arbitrator to find middle ground in the labour dispute because that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We all need to be concerned about how this government is willing to use the notwithstanding clause in a labour relations process,” Schilling said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press