Calling the province’s offer for mediation “insulting” and “unacceptable,” Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling vowed that teachers will not go back to work on Monday.

More than 50,000 teachers across Alberta have been on strike since Oct. 6. Talks between the ATA and the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) are at an impasse. On Thursday, the ATA received a letter from the province asking them to go back to work this Monday, and accept an “enhanced mediation” process. As part of that, the teachers would promise not to return to the picket lines till Nov. 20.

The letter, from the ministry of finance, states that the strike is “an unacceptable state of affairs when more than 700,000 students are not in school.”

Schilling said the teachers will remain

See Full Page