By rdnewsNOW staff

More Meeting Dates Planned Though

ATA says collective bargaining talks have ‘broken down’ with Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools

Feb 6, 2024 | 4:36 PM

Teachers in Red Deer Catholic are being called to an important bargaining meeting on February 15 to discuss next steps after local bargaining has broken down between the school division and the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

ATA officials say bargainers met for two consecutive days of mediation in late January, but despite a marathon 13-hour second day of talks, the school board refused to move off its original bargaining position, say union officials. They say the position tabled by the school board includes a number of offensive proposals attempting to strip out longstanding provisions from the collective agreement.

“Given recent public controversies, the last thing Red Deer Catholic needs to be doing right now is picking fights with its teachers. Yet, based on the approach being used in local bargaining, that is exactly what they appear to be doing,” says Sara Lambert, president of Red Deer Catholic Local No 80.

The ATA says teachers will be presented with the school board’s last tabled proposal for bargaining at the meeting on February 15 and updated on the events that have characterized what the union calls a particularly rocky round of local negotiations. The ATA says teachers will be asked for direction on how to proceed with the bargaining process, which could include asking the mediator to write out of the dispute.

According to the ATA, if the mediator exits the process, a legislated two-week cooling-off period would begin, after which the ATA could apply to hold a strike vote, or the school division could hold a lockout vote.

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“Red Deer Catholic teachers just want to be treated with fairness, respect and decency. The settlement trends are clearly established, and an agreement should be easy to achieve. Instead of getting a deal done, negotiators are wasting time, playing games and unnecessarily antagonizing teachers. We deserve to be treated better,” adds Lambert.

The ATA says Red Deer Catholic remains one of only six school divisions in the province (out of a total of 61) that has not reached agreement with teachers for the 2020–2024 bargaining round.

Union officials say collective bargaining for teachers in Alberta is a two-phase process where matters of significant cost and broad impact are negotiated at a central table, followed by local negotiations between individual school divisions and ATA bargaining units on other, more locally specific, matters.

According to the ATA, teachers in Red Deer Catholic have been working without a finalized collective agreement since September 2020.

Officials with Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, meantime, have provided the following statement in response to the current circumstances.

“The first stage (Central Bargaining), was completed in May 2022 and ratified by the ATA membership in June 2022. The central table provisions affect all Alberta teachers and are currently in place within the 2020-2024 collective agreement. Those provisions largely include compensation, benefits, working conditions and terms of the Collective Agreement. The term dates of the current Collective Agreement for teachers is September 1, 2020, to August 31, 2024.

“Following completion and ratification of the central bargaining, the Alberta Teachers’ Association can commence local bargaining with the 61 school divisions in Alberta, which includes RDCRS.

“The Association served notice to RDCRS to commence local bargaining on June 27, 2022. No action was taken by the Alberta Teachers’ Association to commence actual bargaining of the local negotiations until the RDCRS insisted on meeting in June 2023. The first bargaining meeting was held on June 21, 2023, to exchange bargaining proposals.

“Subsequently, the two sides met on October 5 and 6, 2023 to begin the discussion phase on the tabled bargaining items. Good conversations between the parties occurred during those two meetings. Future dates were under discussion between the two sides when, unexpectedly, the Association made an application on December 14, 2023, to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for the appointment of a mediator.

“A mediator was appointed on December 19, 2023. Meetings including the mediator were scheduled following the Christmas recess for January 24 and 25, 2024. During and at the end of our two days of meetings, the Association advised RDCRS that a meeting with teachers of RDCRS would take place sometime during February 13 – 15, 2024. Currently, RDCRS and the Association have agreed to meeting dates on March 7 and 8 and April 25 and 26, 2024.”

Vice Chair Dorraine Lonsdale states, “It is the intention of RDCRS to continue a principled and respectful approach while bargaining the local items tabled by both sides while arriving at a mutually acceptable agreement. The school division highly values its teachers and in addition, we are responsible to students, parents, and our communities. RDCRS has a duty to preserve our programs and services, to manage our complex education system and to be financially accountable for our decisions. These three pillars extend also to our bargaining of collective agreements affecting our employees. RDCRS takes these responsibilities under great consideration at all times.”

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