The following story is by our Co-op Editor Saleh Waziruddin, who lives in St.Catharines, Canada.
Thousands of elementary and high school students across Alberta walked out yesterday to support teachers whose strike was just broken unconstitutionally by the United Conservative government. The contract that was imposed by the Alberta government was already rejected by teachers twice, by almost 90% in the last vote.
“I see it every day, every class. Forty people, at least, in every single class! It’s taking away from my learning, my classmates’ learning,” student protester Wyatt Gubersky told Global News.
Students in Alberta organized the walkout through social media and group chats. On Friday, thousands of students walked out of classrooms with catchy picket signs like “If kids were pipelines, would they get some funding?”
Alberta has one of the lowest per-student funding rates in Canada for public schools but one of the highest for private schools. Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) President Gil McGowan called this, “a MAGA-style agenda – an agenda that Albertans did not vote for.”
When over 50,000 teachers went on strike over class size and pay earlier this month, they enjoyed broad public support.
However, the United Conservative government broke the strike using a loophole in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the “notwithstanding clause,” that forced teachers to return to work.
AFL President McGowan denounced the government, “You’re the bully going after workers’ rights and democracy. We will stand up to the bully.”
Ontario used the same loophole against K-12 education workers in 2022 but backed off under threat of a general strike. Despite a contract being imposed on the teachers, the walkout by students allows the union to continue to place pressure on the Alberta government to meet their demands.
To continue to mobilize publicly, the Common Front, a coalition of unions including affiliates of the AFL, have launched a campaign called “Ready to Resist.” They are named after the Front Commun in Quebec, where hundreds of thousands of public sector workers struck for nine days in 2023.
For now, Alberta teachers said that they would return to the class, but won’t rule out taking more drastic action.
“We will begin the process of organizing towards a potential general strike,” AFL President McGowan said.
Students are continuing to build momentum as the Alberta Federation of Labour prepares to fight.
“We’re still fighting for them, even after they can’t,” student Matilda Barron told Global News.
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