We’re teaming up for teachers! The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) are pleased to announce a new partnership to provide special discounts to Alberta’s teachers. AMA is happy to support Alberta teachers! Enjoy booking your next travel adventure on AMA’s new website designed just for you. As an ATA member, you can get an exclusive $50 membership discount when you join AMA with a plus or premier membership, and as an AMA member, you can continue to stack up your savings on car rentals (up to 20 per cent), hotels (up to 30 per cent) and more! This partnership includes a Best Price Guarantee from AMA when booking hotels and vacation packages online, discounts on emergency medical and travel medical insurance and more. Access all the new savings by visiting the special website just for ATA members or calling the ATA members’ exclusive phone number at 1-855-474-8753. Log in at www.teachers.ab.ca and navigate to Special Rates for ATA Members to access the link and start planning your discounted vacation.
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The Central Table Bargaining Committee (CTBC) is hosting two Zoom webinars to share aspects of the draft initial proposal for central table bargaining for 2024. Members will receive an overview of the Association’s draft opening position for central table bargaining, information on the development of the finalized initial proposal and an update on where we are in the bargaining process. Members will also have an opportunity to provide feedback. The webinars will be held April 23 and April 24. Members do not need to attend both sessions, as the content will be the same. For members who are unable to attend, one session will be recorded and posted to the Association’s website, in the Bargaining Updates 2024 section. To stay connected and informed, keep an eye out for Bargaining Updates.
WORTH SHARING The Central Table Bargaining Committee (CTBC) is hosting two Zoom webinars to share aspects of the draft initial proposal for central table bargaining for 2024. The first will be held on Tuesday, April 23, at 4 pm and the second on Wednesday, April 24, at 7 pm. To register, click here for Tuesday or here for Wednesday. Keep an eye out for Bargaining Updates to stay connected and informed. #WEAREATA On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, the Central Table Bargaining Committee (CTBC) held a telephone town hall (TTH) for members to share the draft goals and priorities from the central table survey. Members received a political overview, information on the role of the CTBC, an update on where we are in the process and an overview of the draft goals and priorities from the survey completed by teachers.
Over 5,000 members attended the TTH representing approximately 10 per cent of the membership. Following the meeting, 263 voice messages were left. If you missed the TTH, listen to the recording here. What happens next? Teacher Employment Services executive staff officers are connecting with the members who had questions in the voice messages they left. A summary of the calls is being shared with the CTBC as they continue with the mandate creation phase, which will culminate with the creation of the central matters initial proposal. The goal is for the initial proposal to be completed and exchanged with the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association before the end of the school year. Those survey respondents indicating interest in participating in focused conversations have been contacted, and the groups are being formulated to ensure a representative and manageable number of participants. The focused conversations are scheduled for April 16–18, 2024. Webcasts are tentatively scheduled for April 23, 2024, at 4 pm and 7 pm, to share more information regarding potential proposals that could appear on the initial proposal. The CTBC will be hosting these sessions to ensure that they understand the aspirations and convictions of members. WORTH SHARING If you missed the telephone town hall on March 20, 2024, click here to listen. More engagement opportunities are coming later in April where members will be able to provide feedback on potential proposals. It is crucial that members stay connected and have their say so that the initial proposal is reflective of their aspirations and convictions. Keep an eye out for Bargaining Updates to stay connected and informed. #WEAREATA The Alberta Teachers’ Association has always maintained that teachers, who bring the curriculum to life everyday in their classrooms, should be at the forefront of curriculum development. While the Association, and some teachers, have been consulted on this curriculum draft, we believe that our involvement must go beyond consultation by involving teachers more directly. The Alberta Teachers’ Association continues to review and analyse the draft K–6 social studies curriculum and encourages teachers to provide their feedback. Given the busy nature of this time year and upcoming spring breaks in many school divisions, the ATA has asked for an extension of the draft consultation period. The Alberta Government has agreed to extend the deadline to April 2. The new draft social studies curriculum is better than the 2021 draft; however, further improvement is still required. Teachers may want to consider the following, as well as public statements from others (here and here), when reviewing the draft and providing feedback. Good curriculum should
WORTH KNOWING The Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) and the Association have recently agreed on changes to the list of all matters (LAM) that came out of bargaining dates held in January and February. The final version of the LAM is available here. This completes the first phase of the central bargaining process. The 2024 central table matters survey closed on March 1, 2024. The mandate creation process is now under way. It will culminate with Provincial Executive Council (PEC) creating and approving the initial proposal. The survey received 19,799 responses (14,679 complete, 4,893 partial and 227 disqualified responses). This is a significant increase in the response rate from the 2020 round of central table bargaining, where we saw about 16,000 responses between the two surveys. The Central Table Bargaining Committee (CTBC) has been hard at work analyzing the data from the responses. The main report from the survey tool generated a document of over 3,100 pages. The next step in the mandate creation process is for the CTBC to review the information and determine whether what teachers said in the survey has been accurately articulated in the reports. This will be completed using several engagement opportunities. Below is a list of the initial opportunities. 1. Telephone town hall (TTH) (Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 7:00 PM, for approximately one hour)—At this session, the draft goals and priorities gleaned from the survey will be shared with members in attendance. Members will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. More information about the TTH will be shared with members as soon as possible. Please save the date and the time. 2. District representatives (DRs) and table officers—Once the draft goals and priorities are shared, members should provide feedback to their elected officials. PEC decides what is included in the initial proposal. 3. Teacher Welfare Committees (TWCs)—Once the draft is out next week, TWCs are welcome to use the document at their meetings to gather feedback. That feedback should be shared with the DRs and the Teacher Employment Services (TES) staff officer assigned to the bargaining unit. 4. Focus groups—Respondents to the survey were asked if they wished to be included in a focus group to provide further feedback. Over 3,000 respondents indicated that they were interested in participating. While that number is too large to have a functioning group, we will connect with members who expressed interest to ensure that the group is as diverse and representative of Alberta’s teachers as possible. Those who did not previously sign up for focus groups through the survey will be given another opportunity to express interest during the TTH. 5. Bargaining Advisory Committee (BAC)—The BAC, while not a decision-making body, comprises TWC chairs from each of the 61 bargaining units across the province and is used to provide feedback to the CTBC. At the Collective Bargaining Conference in April, the BAC will meet to review the feedback they have received and view potential draft language to be included in the initial proposal. The BAC is a direct link back to the CTBC from the field and provides the necessary context and perspectives from members. 6. Webcasts—Using the feedback from previous engagement opportunities, the CTBC will hone and fine-tune potential initial proposal language and present it in webcasts, planned for later in April or early May. Members will have an opportunity to share their feedback on the draft language with their TWC chairs and members of PEC in advance of final approval of the initial proposal. Members are encouraged to take advantage of the engagement opportunities that best meet their needs to ensure that their opinions are heard. Below is a timeline for the next steps in the central table negotiations. WORTH SHARING
The list of all matters (LAM) is now finalized and is available here. Almost 20,000 members completed the central bargaining survey, and work is ongoing to analyze the results. Many engagement opportunities will be provided in the coming weeks and months to allow members to provide feedback. The first is a telephone town hall, scheduled for Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at 7:30 pm. More access information is coming soon, but members are encouraged to save the date. #WEAREAT |
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Updates from ATA ProvincialArchives
April 2024
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