Teachers overwhelming reject offer

By Lethbridge Herald on October 1, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Teachers across the province responded with a resounding no to the memorandum of agreement with the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association. 

Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling announced Monday night that more than 30,000 teachers had voted against the memorandum. He said teachers voted in record numbers on a memorandum agreement that overwhelmingly felt like it did not meet their needs and the needs of their students. 

“My colleagues have spoken, 89.5 per cent have voted to reject the memorandum of agreement. Teachers will be on strike on Oct. 6,” said Schilling. 

The ATA represents 51,000 teachers across the province, 43, 362 of whom voted. More than 38,000 voted no, while fewer than 4,500 voted yes.

Schilling said that for weeks the provincial government has tried to suggest that the ATA leadership is out of touch with members and barrelling toward a strike, and that somehow the ATA leadership is preventing a deal from being made. 

“They are wrong because the ATA leadership respects and values members opinions. We went directly to our teachers and asked them. Their response? The resounding and historical no that you have before you today.”

Schilling said the proposed agreement failed to meet the needs of teachers, failed to improve student classroom conditions in a concrete and meaningful way, and failed to show teachers the respect they deserve. 

“The undeniable truth is that Alberta spends the least per student on public education than any other province in Canada.”

He said that providing adequate numbers of teachers and appropriate student supports is not a luxury to negotiate, it is literally the job of government. 

“And despite their bragging of record spending, the UCP has failed to fund for enrollment and growth. The government should be embarrassed to suggest that teachers should not expect an improvement of the working conditions and salary improvements. It seems that you can’t have both, as we heard.” 

He said that instead of fixing the problem head on, they now have oversized classes, and growing student complexities that push teachers far past their limits. 

Finance Minister Nate Horner countered that this is the second time teachers have rejected a potential settlement that provided what their union said they wanted in response to growing classroom complexities. In a statement, he said the ATA’s rejected deal would have provided “tremendous investments” in classroom supports to help alleviate population Schilling said that 3,000 teachers over three years is a drop in the bucket of what is needed to try to address class size and complexity.

“You could think that 1,000 teachers that were offered there would be absorbed by Calgary and Edmonton metro areas in and of itself for the need that we have out there.”

He called the government’s solutions a Band-aid and said teachers need a more concrete solution that will benefit students and teachers in the future.

Horner said in his statement that he encourages the ATA’s leadership to take time to meet with their members and gain clarity on what teachers are seeking out of a deal. 

“With two failed ratification votes, I am left questioning whether the union fully understands what their members are seeking. If teachers did not want this deal, then why was it proposed by the ATA in the first place?” said Horner. 

That said, Horner added that “Alberta’s government is committed to reaching a fair deal for our teachers so we can keep our kids in school.”

Schilling said the ATA is also also willing to go back to the table, but only if the government has a more serious offer. 

“If government comes with something that is similar to this, I don’t know what my colleagues across the province would tolerate that kind of deal coming forward. If we want to talk, we will need to have serious conversations about the things that teachers need to see in their classrooms.”