Local teachers,
divisions accept contract proposal

Teachers and the Foothills and Christ the Redeemer school boards have met a Jan. 31 deadline to accept a salary agreement — as a result there may be no labour issues until at least 2012.
The School Board Employers Bargaining Authority (SBEBA) voted in favour to accept the mediators’ recommendation for new contracts between teachers and their respective school boards, during a special meeting in Edmonton
on Sunday.
The tentative agreement, which must be ratified by all 62 boards in the province and their respective teacher negotiating units by Jan. 31, would have the government take over the teachers’ share of paying for the unfunded liability portion of their pension plan (approximately 3.1 per cent of their salary) and teachers would receive a three per cent increase for 2007-08 and for the four following years salary increases would be based on the Alberta Average Weekly Earning Index, similar to MLAs. Teachers would continue to pay into their pension plans.
Foothills School Division teachers voted overwhelmingly to accept the mediated settlement on Thursday.
It was accepted by 96 per cent of the 288 teachers who voted on Thursday night, according to Greg Poile, president of the Foothills School Division chapter of the Alberta Teachers Association.
Christ the Redeemer teachers had voted in favour of the mediated agreement earlier in the week.
The negotiations were stalled as teachers from each of the respective school division boards had to deal at separate times with SBEBA, a bargaining unit representing 12 separate school boards. The Alberta Labour Review Board had ruled in December that the teachers could not be forced to negotiate as a group from 12 different divisions.
While the bargaining unit did ratify the mediators’ recommended settlements with teachers from seven boards on Sunday, there were still details to be ironed out with five others.
Brent Romanchuk, SBEBA president, said he is hopeful a resolution can be found with the other five boards.
“We are confident that we can resolve these issues and meet the deadline,” Romanchuk said in an interview on Monday.
The stumbling blocks do not necessarily involve the proposed salary, but other factors such as professional development days and benefits.
“Unfortunately in good conscience we have to reject the mediators’ recommendations in five other jurisdictions primarily because the proposed contracts would have resulted in unfair results for some member jurisdictions,” Romanchuk said in a prepared statement.
SBEBA has scheduled its next ratification vote on the remaining contracts for Jan. 31.

Driver facing manslaughter charges

The driver of a cement truck that was involved in a collision that saw five Okotoks residents killed last month is now facing more serious charges.
Daniel Tschetter, 50, of Cochrane, now has five charges of manslaughter, five counts of criminal negligence causing death and one charge of attempting to obstruct justice in relation to the Dec. 7 collision after charges were upgraded in Calgary on Jan. 25. He also faces one charge of failing to provide a breath sample that had been laid in December.
Tschetter was initially charged with five counts of dangerous driving causing death.
The 50-year-old was charged after a cement truck smashed into the rear of a car parked at a stoplight at 194 Ave. on the evening of Dec. 7.
Christopher Gautreau, 41, of Okotoks, and his daughters, Alexia, 9, and Kiarra, 6, were killed. Gautreau’s girlfriend, Melaina Hovdebo, 33, and her 16-month-old son, Zachary Morrison, also died in the collision. Zachary lived in Okotoks with his father.
Tschetter has been denied bail. He is scheduled to appear in court in Calgary on Jan. 30.