About 51,000 Alberta teachers who walked off the job Monday morning have been served with a lockout notice.
School doors across Alberta closed Monday after the association representing teachers was unable to reach an agreement with employers that teachers would accept.
Late Monday afternoon, the Teachers' Employer Bargaining Association — which represents school boards in collective bargaining for all of Alberta's public, Catholic and francophone teachers — issued a lockout notice that goes into effect on Thursday.
"The government's lockout was expected, as it's a response to teachers going on strike," the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) said in a statement.
Striking was not a step teachers wanted to take, ATA president Jason Schilling said at a Monday morning news conference.
"Our classrooms, hallways and school fields are empty, and not because we've given up on public education but because we care too much about it to stand by and watch it slowly erode and crumble from chronic underfunding," Schilling said.
Alberta Teacher's Association president Jason Schilling speaks to the media in
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