Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
@smartalecw.bsky.social
470 followers 830 following 740 posts
🙃 Substitute Teacher | Union Miniboss | Intersectional Feminist 💚 Knitting & Crafts | Geeky Things | Volunteering 🇨🇦 I live, work, & play on Treaty 6 territory, specifically amiskwaciwâskahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ)
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smartalecw.bsky.social
As we're waiting for press conferences, I'm re-sharing an article I published in June.

Substitute teachers in Alberta deal with unreasonable income and employment instability, unreasonable workplace uncertainty, and unreasonable social struggles.

medium.com/@smartalecwa...

#ABEd
Substitute Teaching in Alberta Sucks Far More Than You Know
2025/Jun/15
medium.com
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
plaguepoems.bsky.social
The meeting began
with an icebreaker:
“which of your skills
would be most useful
if you found yourself
sent back in time
to the Middle Ages?”
and as I looked around
at all the unmasked faces
I was tempted to say:
I know how to
avoid the plague,
but instead I just said:
I can knit.
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
toolcutie.bsky.social
Hey Edmonton. If you're unsure or curious to find out which candidates you're most aligned with for mayor and council, this is a great tool.

edmonton.taproot.vote/2025/surveys...
Take the Taproot Survey
Where do you stand on issues raised by voters in the 2025 municipal election?
edmonton.taproot.vote
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
electricbluesfan.bsky.social
4/9
Despite these long hours, a majority of Alberta teachers feel undervalued.

Only 35 per cent of teachers in the province believe their profession is valued by society, a drop of 11 percentage points since the 2018 survey and well below the international average of 49 per cent.
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
electricbluesfan.bsky.social
1/9
🚨 ALBERTA TEACHERS AMONG WORLD'S MOST STRESSED & OVERWORKED 🚨

A #OECD report confirms what #Alberta #teachers have been saying: they are facing unsustainable #workloads, high #stress, and a lack of #support compared to their peers globally.

Alberta Teachers' Association
#AbLeg #AbEd #ATAstrike
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
smartalecw.bsky.social
They are open to associate membership. And there are a few that have Association representation in collective bargaining, if I remember correctly.
smartalecw.bsky.social
I've also been chosen; a safe enough person for a student to disclose abuse. Thankfully, that school still had support we could access.

It's important to recognize the care of teaching. It's a work of heart.
And we need proper supports in every school to take care of our youth.
smartalecw.bsky.social
It's hard having schools closed for lots of reasons but the hardest one is; for some kids school is their only safe place. I was one of them.

School staff need time, support, and resources to offer appropriate care. Those things are being eroded by the government.

#ABEd
jansplanet.bsky.social
Grateful that you are in her corner, Mark.

Consequences of the school strike.
The kids are being hurt.
Many hungry.
Many trapped in violence.
💔
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
drjaydrno.bsky.social
We will use teacher salaries to bribe parents, and they will love us.

*massive protests*

We will return to the bargaining table.
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
daveberta.bsky.social
👀 Breaking the ATA and making membership in the union optional for teachers are actual official UCP policies that were enthusiastically passed by delegates at the party’s convention last year in Red Deer.

daveberta.substack.com/p/teachers-o...
Teachers on strike in Alberta!
More than 51,000 teachers launched the largest strike the history of their profession in Alberta
daveberta.substack.com
smartalecw.bsky.social
They don't believe in public education, the professionalism of teachers, nor union activity.

Remember Bill 32? It made it so that union folks could opt out of "non-core functions" of their unions.
albertaworker.ca/news/kenneys...
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
micropainter.bsky.social
Your child’s class size doesn’t matter…to HIM. OR Danielle.

WE STAND WITH THE TEACHERS.

#RecallNicolaides #FireTheUCP #RecallDanielle #abed #ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli #yyc #yeg #Alberta #Canada #CanadaSky
thebreakdownab.bsky.social
Demetrios Nicolaides is making the rounds on talk shows and would like you to know that class sizes don't matter that much.

/1

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #abed
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
jantafrench.bsky.social
The Alberta government stopped tracking class sizes, and then the province's population growth really took off. @robsonfletcher.com set out to find out how the numbers of teachers compare to that growth, with the limited info available

Class size/composition is a strike issue.
#AbEd #AbLeg
ANALYSIS | Alberta stopped tracking class sizes. Then it changed its funding formula. Now, it's a teachers' strike issue | CBC News
Get a rough idea of how much Alberta’s teaching staff has grown compared to how much student enrolment has grown since the funding formula for school boards was changed.
www.cbc.ca
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
smartalecw.bsky.social
We should pay our elected representatives fairly.
We should also pay our teachers fairly, but here we are.
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
thebreakdownab.bsky.social
UCP - We want teachers back to the bargaining table!

Also UCP - The earliest we can do is the 14th!

But at least it looks like bargaining in the teachers strike will restart next week!

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
albertateachers.bsky.social
In a special release of the ATA News's Q&A, ATA Executive Secretary Dennis Theobald addresses the decision to not picket during this strike. Read the article at abteach.cc/ATANewsQ&A and stay tuned for an online edition of the ATA News being released next week!
smartalecw.bsky.social
Walked this AM with Public Interest Alberta and @sosalberta.bsky.social! It was early, but good. Had a solid conversation with Colette Bachand (Trustee Candidate, Ward D) about my experiences as a sub.

Substitute teaching needs to be sustainable. #AlbertaTeachers #KidsCantWaitAB #StopTheExcuses
A selfie of Alec Walker, taken the morning of 2025/Oct/09 during a walk in support of Alberta teachers, who are on strike. Alec is standing at the corner of 105 Street NW and River Valley Road NW in Edmonton, AB and you can barely see the Walterdale bridge in the background. Alec is wearing a protest sign which is cut-off by the bottom of the picture. He's wearing a red toque (that reads "public teacher strong") and a red scarf.
You can see a sign held by a participant who is to Alec's right, the sign reads, "Fight for Public Education." Behind Alec, there are many other participants wearing red and carrying signs.
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
according2luke.bsky.social
3/5
We are one of only three provinces that operate & fully fund non-cooperative Separate Catholic schools (where we lose $275,000,000 education dollars a year through inefficiencies just to specially favour one religion over all others).
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
alberduhfreedumb.bsky.social
Photo taken on day one of the teacher's strike. She is deplorable.
smartalecw.bsky.social
They care about power and control.
And optics.

They don't care about our public education system - hell, they're actively trying to destroy it. #AlbertaTeachers, hold the line! #SolidarityForever

#ABEd #WeAreATA #KidsCantWaitAB #StopTheExcuses
Reposted by Alec Walker 🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
thebreakdownab.bsky.social
From the DM’s…

The government of Alberta has apparently decided to take down the temperature on the teachers strike…

By locking teachers out.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli