Bargaining secrecy is disappearing – especially for teacher unions

Vancouver Sun blog - Report Card - An in-depth look at the BC education system
Janet Steffenhagen
June 4, 2012

The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) is unhappy with a local school board for releasing bargaining proposals to the public in what’s been described as an effort to be more transparent. (Expect a sympathetic nodding of heads from the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.)

Larry Booi, a former ATA president, is quoted in the Calgary Herald as saying the Rocky View board has either forgotten bargaining rules or is being provocative. The “unorthodox move” occurred at the start of negotiations between Alberta teachers and the province’s 62 school boards, the Herald says.

“Now it is laid bare that teachers in the Rocky View public district have started bargaining with a pitch for around a seven per cent, one-year pay hike for most teachers, and the trustees’ proposal is to decrease salaries by the same amount,” writes reporter Jason Markusoff.

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