Sask. teachers to withdraw lunchtime supervision for one day
As contract negotiations continue to languish, Saskatchewan's teachers' union says educators will withdraw noon-hour supervision on Thursday.
"All teachers provide many supports over their lunch break. These services are voluntary, as they're not part of their professional responsibilities of teachers that are legislated in the Education Act," Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) President Samantha Becotte said.
On Thursday, teachers across Saskatchewan will withdraw from providing voluntary lunch supervision or taking part in noon-hour activities, instead, they will leave the building.
"Government has provided us with a 'take or leave it offer' and after nine months ... they have not engaged in any negotiations and remain firm on that opening offer. Their disengagement in the process is absolutely disrespectful to students and teachers," Becotte said.
The fresh job action announcement comes after one day after the union said there would be another, partial one-day strike on Wednesday. Teachers will walk off the job in Saskatoon, surrounding communities. Teachers in the province's north will also hit the picket line as part of the single-day strike.
Contract talks between the union and the Saskatchewan Government have been at a standstill since October over the issue of whether items like class size and support for students with complex needs can be negotiated at the bargaining table.
“Every one of these announcements has been disappointing because I know that it affects students and families at the end of the day. So it's not where we'd like the situation to be,” Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill told reporters Monday.
The government has remained steadfast in its position that locally elected school boards best handle those issues. However, the STF has pointed to examples in other provinces where teachers have been able to negotiate similar items into their contracts.
Cockrill says the last time he spoke with Becotte was on Jan. 11, prior to the STF’s first strike action. When asked about what discussions have happened since then within government – he said a renewed mandate for the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee (GTBC) was one topic.
“I think discussions are around a renewed mandate. The GTBC operates on direction from government. So certainly within the Ministry of Education we're having those discussions,” he explained.
“I mean, we have been clear on items that we don't view as bargaining. But there are several items that we're having discussions internally and we don't have a renewed mandate at this time. Again, any renewed mandate would require both sides to be at the bargaining table.”
“Certainly we're looking on our end in terms of what's reasonable. I hope that the Teachers' Federation is doing the same thing on their side,” he added.
In an attempt to move forward with bargaining, the two sides met with an STF-requested conciliator over five days in December. The conciliator's report suggested the two sides could negotiate terms around class size and complexity without running afoul of Saskatchewan legislation.
Saskatchewan teachers have been working without a contract since August. They walked off the job in two one-day province-wide strikes on Jan. 16 and Jan. 22 and a partial one-day strike on Feb 1 that saw teachers in Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and North Battleford, and many towns throughout Saskatchewan hit the picket line.
Since summer, the government has touted its proposed salary increase of seven per cent over three years, an offer advertised on billboards and through online ads.
The government has claimed the STF's starting proposal of a 2 per cent annual raise over four years combined with the yearly increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) would amount to a 23 per cent pay hike.
During a Jan. 29 news conference, Becotte said the union's salary ask is only an "opening" proposal and further negotiation is possible.
In October, 90 per cent of STF members voted 95 per cent in favour of job action up to and including a full withdrawal of services.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Triple murder or manslaughter? Sudbury jury deliberating fate of man responsible for fatal firebombing
After a lengthy series of instructions from Justice Dan Cornell, a Sudbury jury is deliberating whether to find a suspect guilty of three counts of manslaughter or three counts of murder.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’