Tank: Teachers' contract rejection subtracts major win for Sask. Party (2024)

The rejection by Saskatchewan’s teachers of a contract offer has left the entire province wondering what lies ahead.

Questions abound after 55 per cent of the 88 per cent of Saskatchewan Teachers Federation members who voted sent the government and the union executive back to the drawing board by rejecting the latest three-year deal last week.

The vote rates as noteworthy since the deal received the tepid endorsem*nt of the union executive, which raises the uncomfortable issue of how much faith teachers have in their union leadership.

Article content

STF president Samantha Becotte acknowledged last week that the looming October election became a factor in endorsing the deal. Becotte explained that failure to secure a deal prior to the vote could mean losing the gains in the government’s latest offer.

But teachers and parents and taxpayers may all have wondered about supporting a pact that did not include guarantees about classroom size and complexity, which we heard repeatedly remained the main sticking points in negotiations.

The STF wants meaningful language in the contract, as has happened in some other provinces; the Saskatchewan Party government refuses to include it.

Now the two sides have less than four months to reach an agreement prior to the provincial election. And the big question that remains unanswered is whether most teachers will back a deal without their key issues included.

The rejection also subtracts what looked like a major victory for the government of Premier Scott Moe, particularly since public sympathy in the contract dispute appeared to be with unionized teachers.

The possibility now exists of job action in the fall as school gets underway and the province gears up for a provincial election.

Article content

Article content

In the wake of last week’s vote, Education Minister Jeremy co*ckrill urged the teachers’ bargaining committee to agree to binding arbitration. Becotte is resisting that idea in favour of further talks, which are set to begin this week.

That will stall job action by teachers. Becotte says she wants teachers to get a vote on any deal, while the arbitration process would allow a third-party arbitrator to shape any settlement.

But you must wonder, despite the optimism expressed by Becotte over a more positive tone at talks, whether most teachers will ever agree to a deal without class size and complexity guarantees.

As Becotte herself said last week, the vote serves as “a message to government that teachers have little trust in their commitments.”

The rejected deal had included a special task force and an accountability framework committing the province to increased funding to address class size and complexity.

That sounds like a similar anemic agreement to the one Saskatchewan’s teachers agreed to four years ago. That agreement obviously failed to address these issues adequately, since they are still lingering today. So it should surprise few that teachers voted against what looks like a similar pledge.

Article content

Back in 2020, teachers’ job action was rendered pointless amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with schools moving to online learning and a public health crisis taking precedent.

Now the threat of job action looms larger for both the province and the teachers’ union with both sides wanting a deal before the election writ is dropped, likely sometime in September.

The provincial government has held firm on its opposition to including class size and complexity in a contract. But that resolve may not play well if the end of this school year, or the beginning of the next one, is disrupted by teachers’ job action.

If the government is truly serious about addressing the major issues for teachers, many will wonder, then why not enshrine them in a contract?

And the issue goes beyond demands by teachers with the perception and the reality — as punctuated by Saskatchewan’s declining student scores on basic subjects of learning — that the province’s education system overall needs repair.

The longer this process continues, the higher the stakes get for both sides.

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatoon news, so make sure to bookmark TheStarPhoenix.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content