Teachers from Regina divisions to strike, protest outside Legislature on Monday

Teachers from school divisions across Saskatchewan — including two in Regina — will be in the Queen City on Monday for a protest at the Legislative Building.

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) has announced a one-day rotating strike will be held Monday, which is also the first day of the spring legislative session. Teachers will be on the picket line at the Legislative Building between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

It’s the latest job action taken by teachers in their stalemate with the provincial government over a new collective bargaining agreement.

The rotating strike will involve teachers from the Regina Public, Regina Catholic, Holy Family Catholic, Prairie South, South East Cornerstone school divisions, from the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation’s South Central (Moose Jaw) and South East (Estevan) campuses, and from École Mgr de Laval Pavillon Secondaire des Quatre Vents (Regina), École du Parc (Regina), École Mgr de Laval Pavillon Primaire (Regina), École Ducharme (Moose Jaw), École Mathieu de Gravelbourg (Gravelbourg), École Beau Soleil (Gravelbourg) and École de Bellegarde (Bellegarde).

“Government has ignored calls, emails, meeting requests and office visits from teachers, parents and concerned citizens. It will be awfully difficult for them to ignore us on Monday as they return for spring session,” STF president Samantha Becotte said in a media release.

“Saskatchewan residents have sent over 110,000 emails to government and school board trustees since the beginning of January. In the face of this overwhelming support for the actions that teachers are taking for their students and publicly funded schools, it is deeply troubling that government remains so intransigent in their position. Students, teachers and families in Saskatchewan deserve much better.

“When government is ready to listen and quit ignoring Saskatchewan parents, we are ready to work with them to find solutions that support the students in both today’s classrooms and the classrooms of the future.”

The teachers’ contract with the province expired in August and the STF declared an impasse in October. That was followed quickly by a vote on possible sanctions against the government, with teachers voting overwhelmingly in support of job action.

Those have included rotating strikes, as well as the withdrawal of lunch-hour supervision and of extracurricular activities.

The STF cancelled planned sanctions in early February after the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee invited the union back to the bargaining table, but the talks collapsed Feb. 13 and the sanctions resumed.

The sides have been at loggerheads over issues like salary and class size and complexity. The union wants those latter issues included in the new contract, but the government and the Saskatchewan School Boards Association have said those topics should be dealt with by local school divisions.

“Teachers understand that strike action is an inconvenience to many families,” the STF said in Friday’s release.

“Parents and caregivers concerned about the impact of job action should contact their MLAs and elected school board trustees and ask them to encourage the government to provide their bargaining committee with a new mandate to negotiate in good faith on the issues that teachers are bringing forward.”