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Why teachers should not be allowed to strike

Author: John Carpay 2004/06/07
Alberta teachers should not be allowed to go on strike, period. Public education is a vital, essential service on which parents and students depend. Taxpayers pay $3.9 billion per year for Alberta's K-to-12 public system, and are therefore entitled to receive value for that money without disruption by strikes or by threats of strikes.

It's not because Alberta's teachers are the best paid in Canada. It's not because their 14%-over-two-years pay increase is much larger than pay increases received by workers in the private sector. It's because the teachers' union enjoys an absolute monopoly over the provision of teaching services and therefore has the ability to hold students and parents hostage to its demands. Premier Klein's government can and should change existing legislation which enables the Alberta Teachers' Association to hold children for ransom through threats of strikes.

When teachers strike, parents suddenly have no choice but to seek emergency childcare from 9:00 to 3:00, five days per week. Everyone knows that the number of available daycare spaces is not infinite. And with very few exceptions, parents simply cannot afford to pay for "reserving" a spot from September to June just in case teachers decide to strike. When teachers strike, students who depended on teachers must suddenly choose between temporarily embarking on a home-schooling program, or learning nothing at all. Home schooling can be a wonderful choice leading to excellent outcomes, but not when it's imposed suddenly and temporarily through a teachers' strike. In short, a teachers' strike is grossly unfair to parents, grossly unfair to students, and grossly unfair to taxpayers.

But surely the teachers' union has a right to speak about class size and other education issues Yes, as do students, parents, grandparents, employers, and all taxpayers. The right to express one's views is not the same as the right to impose one's demands.

How would teachers feel if parents and other taxpayers had the legal right to withhold salaries from teachers until certain demands were met Would that be fair If it's unfair for taxpayers to stop paying teachers' salaries, why should the teachers' union have the legal right - conferred on it by Premier Klein's government - to withdraw teaching services

The Alberta Teachers' Association will cheerfully and enthusiastically argue that public education is fundamental, indispensable, all-important, and vital-to-the-future public service. That's exactly why Premier Klein should not give the teachers' union a legal right to withdraw from delivering this vital public service.

Things would be different if the teachers' union did not enjoy an absolute monopoly over education in Alberta. Then parents would have the option of sending their children to other schools, where teachers were not on strike. But a teacher, no matter how well qualified, cannot exercise his or her profession without being a member of the teachers' union. The Alberta Teachers' Association controls education in Alberta, and Premier Klein's government allows it to do so.

Learning Minister Lyle Oberg and the rest of Premier Klein's government have a choice. They can continue allowing the Alberta Teachers' Association the right to strike and withdraw a vital and essential public service. Or the government can do Alberta's parents, students, teachers and taxpayers a favour and change this legislation.

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Franco Terrazzano
Federal Director at
Canadian Taxpayers
Federation

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