I’ll be honest, I’m tired of hearing other people say Alberta teachers should be advocating more. We have been for 3 YEARS. We tried to sound the alarm about the UCP b4 the election. We have been fighting nonstop for the two years since. It can’t all be on us. 1/3

For the people in the back: This government DOES. NOT. CARE. what teachers say. It dismisses us as NDP shills. The public has to rally for public education. 2/3

I get that ppl are frustrated. I get that there’s a perception that unions can strike whenever they want. We can’t. And we couldn’t under previous govs either. We can take a strike vote if contract negotiations fall apart but we have to engage in bargaining in good faith 1st 3/3

And (a surprise 4/3 tweet) - an illegal strike plays right into the hands of a government hell bent on union busting. The UCP are banking on a lack of parent support for teachers in negotiations, in education funding, in curriculum. Teachers can’t beat that on our own.

It’s also worth noting that teachers are citizens. We vote, we pay taxes, many of us have children in our school system. And yet our right to take part in the democratic process, part of which involves giving feedback to elected officials, is dismissed at every turn by the UCP.