Saskatchewan teachers to begin work-to-rule campaign Monday

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation has ramped up its sanctions against the provincial government.

On Friday afternoon, STF president Samantha Becotte announced the teachers will start work-to-rule job action provincewide starting Monday.

That means teachers will start work 15 minutes before school starts and end their day 15 minutes after school is dismissed. They also won’t provide lunch-hour supervision or supervision of extracurriculars.

Becotte said the sanctions will be in place indefinitely until the teachers are satisfied with the situation.

“Until we have something tangible that will address classroom complexity and a real commitment through the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee or the ministry where it can be a binding agreement where there’s a dispute resolution and there’s real accountability around the commitments that are being made to improve experiences of students across the province, then these actions will continue until then,” she said during a news conference.

The teachers have been without a contract since August. Talks between the sides have been stalled since mid-February, when negotiations broke down — a turn of events that had each side blaming the other.

The teachers started levying sanctions against the government in January, with job action including rotating one-day strikes and the withdrawal of lunch-hour and extracurricular supervision.

That latter sanction resulted in the cancellation of the Hoopla tournament, with the provincial high school basketball championships being reduced to a one-day event.

Two of the main issues in negotiations are class size and classroom complexity. The teachers want those matters addressed in the collective bargaining agreement, but the government has said that is a non-starter.

The STF offered to take the matter to arbitration, but the government refused. The teachers’ federation has repeatedly said it won’t return to the bargaining table until those issues are included in negotiations.

There appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel in recent weeks when Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said he’d be open to an accountability framework on classroom support money, but the teachers’ federation didn’t sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Becotte responded by saying the union was seeking clarification on some of the language in the MOU. As a result, negotiations have remained at a standstill.

“Our concerns with the multi-year funding agreement that was signed with the (Saskatchewan School Boards Association) and the MOU that included accountability framework that was offered to the STF and SSBA is that these agreements are not binding,” said Becotte.

“The minister keeps saying they’re committed to carrying out these agreements, but when the actions of government continues to contradict their words, it’s difficult to trust anything they say these days.”

Becotte added the STF asked the government to add one line in the collective agreement with teachers and that line was that the parties agree that the multi-year funding agreement and the accountability framework would be followed and honoured.

Becotte said the province didn’t sign off.

She said the teachers have moved significantly on negotiations since the process started, but said they need a promise that is longer than an election-year promise.

“We need a solution that will be around longer than an election-year promise – because our kids needs won’t magically disappear – and I have no doubt that is exactly what the minister of education has planned for the multi-year funding agreement or the accountability framework – for them to magically disappear once the bargaining is over or once the election is over,” she stated.

“If they weren’t going to (walk back), why wouldn’t they put one line in the collective agreement with teachers?”

Becotte said the province informed the teachers’ federation of a flat out “no” on Friday.

“These actions only provide more evidence that this government doesn’t care about resolving negotiations with teachers,” she added. “They don’t want to be held accountable to any of their commitments, because they don’t care about students or about public education and because they have no intention of actually working to improve the experiences of all students and teachers and schools across the province.”

Despite the lack of supervision for extracurriculars, Cockrill has said the government will ensure that graduation ceremonies will be held.

In a statement, Cockrill said it was “very disappointing” that the teachers had opted for sanctions instead of returning to the bargaining table.

“Government and School Divisions have found solutions to assure increased investment into classrooms, multi-year predictability for those investments, as well as a framework that would allow teachers to provide feedback on how those dollars are spent in their local school division,” the minister said in the statement.

Cockrill also said the teachers’ federation remains steadfast with its salary demands, but he reiterated the government’s position that the deal “must also be a fair deal for Saskatchewan taxpayers.”

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Shane Clausing