French school board files complaint over language used to negotiate

The Conseil scolaire FrancoSud school board, which includes Ecole Les Cypres in Medicine Hat, is confirming it has made a labour board relations complaint against the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s Francophone bargaining unit because the unit had demanded FrancoSud’s English-speaking consultant bargain exclusively in French.

“In each negotiations,” FrancoSud said in statement released Friday afternoon, “collective agreements with our teachers in the past have always improved their working conditions. Our collective agreements have always been produced in French over the years, and so will this bargaining round. Discussions with employees are conducted in French. English is only used on the employer's side to communicate with our negotiator, who has been the same for many years. We will continue this practice throughout the negotiations.”

The complaint has baffled Eric Cloutier, president of ATA L’Unité Locale Francophone No.24, who speaks on behalf of the bargaining unit.

“Because we are a Francophone school board, we have always negotiated in French, and now the school board does not want to,” he said. “They have filed a complaint to the labour relations board saying we are unfaithful in our negotiations because we want to negotiate in French. For us, our collective agreement is in French, and we have to negotiate in French. I mean these are French schools ... It’s unbelievable.”

Le Conseil scolaire FrancoSud said it may have a further statement on the matter once the labour relations board makes its ruling.