Amanda Chapman speaking in the AB Legislature, image via assembly.ab.ca
EDMONTON— The Alberta NDP is calling on the provincial government to bring an end to what has become the largest teachers’ strike in Alberta’s history.
About 51,000 teachers are off the job, and more than 740,000 students across the province have been out of class since the strike began on October 6. Negotiations between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the provincial government resumed this week.
In a statement, Amanda Chapman, the NDP’s Shadow Minister for Education, urged the United Conservative Party government to return to the bargaining table with a “fair and substantial offer” that properly funds public education and ends what she described as “strike chaos.”
Chapman said the labour dispute was “entirely preventable” and that conditions in classrooms have steadily worsened since bargaining began last spring.
“Teachers and educators need smaller classrooms and better resources to address their needs, and students need to be back in their classrooms, learning,” she said. “It is entirely up to the UCP government to bring a deal forward that meets these needs and ensures Alberta’s public education system is funded properly, not last in the country.”
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