Sask. teachers to withdraw lunch duties Thursday in 4th-straight day of rotating job action
Ministry of Education calls rotating strikes 'unfortunate,' blames STF for bargaining impasse
Teachers in several more Saskatchewan school divisions will not supervise lunch, recess or other noon-hour activities on Thursday, the latest in a series of escalating job actions announced by the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) this week.
"Teachers do not want to take any action that disrupts student learning or removes opportunities for students to participate in actions within the school community, but we cannot continue on our current course of action that the government has taken," STF president Samantha Becotte told reporters in a briefing Monday morning.
Four separate job actions announced since Friday will impact students and their families in school divisions across the province, as contract negotiations with the province remain at a standstill.
On Monday, teachers provincewide are refusing all extracurricular duties for activities including sports, clubs and non-curricular music and drama. Rotating strikes to withdraw voluntary noon-hour supervision duties also took place in the following school divisions:
- Saskatoon Public Schools.
- Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools.
- Northern Lights School Division.
- Northwest School Division.
- Prairie South School Division.
- Living Sky School Division.
- Light of Christ Catholic School Division.
- Sakewew High School in North Battleford.
For Tuesday, teachers have planned full-day rotating strikes and will not come to school to teach or perform extracurricular or noon-hour duties in the following divisions:
- École Boréale (Ponteix).
- Chinook School Division.
- Île à la Crosse School Division.
- Lloydminster Public School Division and Lloydminster Catholic School Division.
- Northwest School Division.
- Prairie Valley School Division.
- Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre — northwest campus (Neilburg), southwest campus (Swift Current).
On Wednesday, teachers will withdraw noon-hour supervision and extra-curricular services in more school divisions, including:
- Regina Public Schools.
- Christ the Teacher Catholic School Division.
- Île à la Crosse School Division.
- Prairie Valley School Division.
- Sun West School Division.
Thursday will bring more withdrawals of noon-hour supervision at the following school divisions:
- Lloydminster Public School Division.
- Lloydminster Catholic School Division.
- Chinook School Division.
- Creighton School Division.
- North East School Division.
- Prairie Spirit School Division.
On Monday, the Ministry of Education called the rotating strikes "unfortunate," and said negotiators have been "waiting and ready" to bargain.
"Teachers and students should be in the classroom, and the teachers' union should be at the bargaining table," a spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to CBC.
The rotating strikes "do create disruptions and we recognize that," Becotte said. "But the significant amount of disruptions that have been created by choices of this government in underfunding education cannot continue."
She said individual school boards are responsible for creating and communicating how student schedules will be impacted, and parents should contact their schools and school divisions directly for information.
The STF is hosting a virtual parent and caregiver information session Monday at 7 p.m. CST.
WATCH | Sask. teachers refusing extracurricular duties provincewide on Monday:
Parent Nikki Fessler said she is lucky to have family close to pick up her two children from Regina Public Schools on Wednesday, but that her Grade 8 daughter's band practice was cancelled Monday and she worries a performance next month may be at risk.
"It's something to look forward to for her," Fessler told CBC on Monday.
However, Fessler said she supports the strike, particularly because her daughter no longer has one-on-one support to help her with a learning disability related to math.
"As a parent of a child who has struggled in school and needs extra supports that she is not getting, it is imperative that the government steps up to the plate and deals with the complexities in the classroom," Fessler told CBC on Monday.
Class size, complexity holding up bargaining: STF
This week's rotating strikes mark an escalation in the intermittent job action teachers have taken since January.
The province and union continue to blame each other for the impasse.
In its Monday statement, the Ministry of Education said the government-trustee bargaining committee invited teachers to the bargaining table every day last week.
The province says it is open to moving on its salary offer and workplace safety issues, but that "the STF has refused to move off their initial proposals, including a 23.4 per cent salary increase."
However the union has said the province refuses to negotiate class size and complexity, provisions the STF says are in other provinces' contracts with teachers.
The province maintains that class size and complexity are best addressed at the school division level, and says it has offered to annualize $53.1 million in recent funding to address classroom complexity and size outside the new contract for teachers.
However, Becotte said the STF fears that without a contractual obligation to certain classroom working and learning conditions, funding could be clawed back when public pressure eases.
"We need a change of course that we can no longer accept empty promises or committees that push the problem down the road," she said, noting a full strike is not off the table.
What do you think of teacher job action?