Alberta teachers look for ways to make ends meet as historic strike in second day
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EDMONTON – Some Alberta teachers are trying to figure out how to make ends meet without their regular paycheque as a provincewide strike entered its second day Tuesday.
Adrien Dominguez, a math and science teacher in High Prairie, said he’s considering taking up work in photography, marketing and university tutoring.
While he has a reserve fund, he said some friends who are teachers aren’t so lucky and are looking at waitressing, bartending or retail jobs.
“I know co-workers who lost dual incomes, because they’re both teachers, or one’s a teacher and one’s a support staff or got laid off,” he said in an interview.
The job action by Alberta’s teachers follows a long and nasty standoff between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the provincial government, mainly over wages and working conditions.
The government’s latest offer, rejected in a vote by teachers, included a 12 per cent wage increase over four years and hiring 3,000 more teachers to reduce overcrowded classrooms.
The strike affects more than 740,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools, which closed on Monday.
Union president Jason Schilling has said members won’t receive strike pay, but health benefits would be covered by the union.
“Teachers know that they’re not receiving strike pay,” he said. “They didn’t take this decision lightly … and they’re willing to sacrifice some things.”
Other teachers said they’re tightening their belts and looking at hawking some of their household goods to get by.
A labour expert said the strike is making history in terms of its size.
Jason Foster, a labour relations professor at Athabasca University, said the strike by 51,000 union members makes it the largest labour walkout in provincial history.
The last Alberta teachers’ strike in 2002 involved less than half that number with 21,000 members, he said.
“There’s nothing that comes even close,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2025.
— With files from Fakiha Baig and Lisa Johnson in Edmonton