{"id":233735,"date":"2025-10-23T06:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T06:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/233735\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T06:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T06:28:13","slug":"alberta-ndp-urges-public-to-step-up-as-striking-teachers-may-face-back-to-work-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/233735\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta NDP urges public to step up as striking teachers may face back-to-work bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta\u2019s Opposition NDP says it will fight the government\u2019s looming plan to introduce a bill to force striking teachers back to work but admits it has limited options.<\/p>\n

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NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says the public needs to do what it can to pressure the government into rolling back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a certain special role \u2026 but we need you to do your part,\u201d Nenshi told a news conference Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also need you to call your UCP MLAs and tell them that the way they\u2019re dealing with the teachers is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislature is set to resume its fall sitting with a speech from the throne Thursday.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDemonstrators gather at the Alberta Legislature to protest in support of teachers ahead of the strike on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy: Dustin Strazza\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The strike, centred around a dispute over wages and working conditions, has affected 750,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools.<\/p>\n

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About 51,000 teachers have been off the job for more than two weeks. Smith has said teachers can \u201cfully expect\u201d to be legislated back to work should the strike continue into next week, calling it an intolerable hardship for students and families.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:00
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta teachers reject government request to end strike and enter mediation\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Nenshi says it\u2019s the wrong approach.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants students to be back at their desks and teachers want to be at work, but this is not the way to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nenshi told reporters Wednesday that his caucus can try procedural tactics to try to delay the bill\u2019s passage but noted there is little the NDP can do to stop it given Smith\u2019s United Conservative Party holds the house majority.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s make no mistake, they\u2019re going to ram it through as fast as they can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo unless members of the UCP caucus suddenly get religion, ethics, competence and values, that legislation will pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nenshi said he knows the strike has been frustrating and that many families and teachers just want schools to reopen again. But he thinks parents also don\u2019t want their kids to return to an underfunded classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that the UCP will at least try and make a deal that addresses some of these concerns, because even if you say, \u2018We\u2019ll go back to work and we\u2019ll figure it all out later,\u2019 when\u2019s later?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids don\u2019t have forever. We have to fix it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nenshi said the NDP has invited teachers to take in Thursday\u2019s throne speech from the gallery of the house and noted that many more are expected to rally outside the legislature.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:42
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta teachers, province resume talks as strike enters 2nd week\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Alberta Teachers\u2019 Association, which represents the striking teachers, has said it\u2019s weighing its options when it comes to responding to a back-to-work order but hasn\u2019t offered details on what that might look like.<\/p>\n

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On Monday, government house leader Joseph Schow refused to provide details about the government\u2019s plans and whether it would use the Charter of Rights and Freedom\u2019s notwithstanding clause to ensure its strike-ending law was protected from a possible court overruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can also say that we are very concerned about getting kids back in the classroom, so we\u2019ll use whatever means are necessary,\u201d Schow said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s Opposition NDP says it will fight the government\u2019s looming plan to introduce a bill to force striking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7611,74535,60893,64916,49,48,549,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-233735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta-legislature","9":"tag-alberta-teachers","10":"tag-alberta-teachers-association","11":"tag-alberta-teachers-strike","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}