In solidarity with Alberta teachers (October 2025)

For decades, professions dominated by women - including nursing, education and care work - have been told to “do it for the passion.” Yet passion does not pay the bills, nor does it replace safe workplaces, reasonable workloads, or a living wage. Women make up the vast majority of paid care workers in Canada, and care occupations have been documented as under-rewarded and undervalued compared with other sectors. This is not coincidence; it is structural.

Labeling care and teaching workers “heroes” during crises while simultaneously cutting pay, attacking collective bargaining, or threatening their jobs is a stark contradiction. Across Alberta this month more than 50,000 educators have taken job action to defend classroom conditions and student safety — a demonstration of the seriousness and scale of their concerns.

We are deeply alarmed by the UCP government’s move to introduce back-to-work legislation. Forcing workers back to their posts without a free and fair collective bargaining process risks setting a dangerous precedent that erodes the ability of all workers in this province - including nurses and health workers - to meaningfully negotiate safe staffing, fair compensation and humane working conditions. Recent announcements confirm the government’s plan to table back-to-work measures imminently.

The right to strike and to engage in collective action is not merely a bargaining tactic - it is constitutionally protected in Canada as an essential component of freedom of association. The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that blanket bans on meaningful collective action by public sector workers are unconstitutional. Any legislation that seeks to remove or severely limit the right to withhold labour must be scrutinized against these legal protections.

We call on the Alberta government to:

• Withdraw any back-to-work legislation and return to the bargaining table in good faith.

compensation.

• Respect the constitutional rights of workers to collective bargaining and meaningful job action, and refrain from using legislative power to short-circuit those rights.

As LPNs, we know first-hand that safe, well-resourced public services — health care and education alike — are mutually reinforcing. Undermining one undermines the other. If the UCP is allowed to legislate workers back to work without addressing the structural issues that caused the dispute, all Albertans will pay the price: overburdened classrooms and hospitals, and a dangerous precedent for worker rights across sectors.

To all teachers: we see you. We stand with you. To the people of Alberta: invest in public services that reflect their importance — not only in rhetoric but in pay, staffing and working conditions. To the government: negotiate fairly, respect constitutional rights, and put students and communities ahead of political theatre.