Talks involving teachers, school board trustees and the Alberta government that appeared headed for a 10-year collective bargaining deal have collapsed.
A government-appointed mediator walked away from negotiations on the weekend, the Alberta Teachers' Association said Monday.
"The (Alberta School Boards Association) is the problem," association president Frank Bruseker said in a news release.
"They refuse to move off their proposal of 10 years of frozen collective agreements and have shown no serious interest in resolving some of the major stumbling blocks through mediation."
Key issues for teachers, who went on a major strike two years ago, have continued to be classroom conditions and class size. They went back to work in 2002 with an average 14-per-cent wage increase and a promise from the Alberta government to set up a commission to review education in the province.
Mr. Bruseker said he sees little evidence that the government has acted on recommendations by the commission on how to improve classroom conditions.
"Teachers aren't being hired by boards. Classrooms are getting even bigger," he said.
Mr. Bruseker suggested that the school boards association was not willing to compromise on the length of the deal, which was seen as too long by teachers.
He also accused the group of posting an inaccurate website account of last week's meeting with Learning Minister Lyle Oberg that said the teachers union had agreed to no local bargaining over a 10-year term.
The school boards association was not immediately available for comment.
The collapsed talks put in question an offer the government made to cover a $1.9-billion unfunded liability in the teachers' pension plan.
The deal, which Mr. Oberg indicated last week was 95-per-cent done, would have seen teachers get annual raises, based on a formula now used for Alberta politicians, that would have amounted to at least 3 per cent a year. There was also agreement to hire 2,500 new teachers and cut class sizes within three years.
Mr. Bruseker warned late last week that teachers in Edmonton and Calgary still had a big concern with instructional time and that some instructors could walk off the job.