As a provincewide strike by Alberta’s teachers enters its second day, a labour expert says in terms of sheer size, it is already making history.
Jason Foster, a labour relations professor at Athabasca University, says the strike by 51,000 members of the Alberta Teachers' Association makes it the largest labour walkout in provincial history.
Foster says the last teachers’ strike was in 2002 and involved less than half that number, at 21,000.
The current action affects more than 740,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools.
The two sides are at odds over wages and working conditions.
The province last offered 12 per cent wage hikes over four years and hiring 3,000 more teachers to reduce overcrowded classrooms, but that was rejected by teachers.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
