Union president says Saskatchewan teachers want a deal, not a strike

Contract negotiations between the provincial government and the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) are ongoing, and the union’s president says the goal is to reach a negotiated deal with the government, not to go on strike.

“If they are ready to come to the table and have … good-faith conversations about the proposal that we brought forward aimed at fixing some of the challenges that teachers and students face in classrooms, then hopefully we can avoid that,” Samantha Becotte told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday.

Becotte claimed the province has been underfunding education for nearly a decade and she said students are losing out because of it.

“Teachers are having a harder and harder time to meet all (the students’) individual needs and there’s fewer professional supports in our classrooms,” she added.

“Really, we’re just trying to ensure that every kid across Saskatchewan, regardless of the needs that they come in our school (with), the location that they’re in, their back, that they have the supports that they need to succeed in our schools.”

When asked about whether the province’s new gender and naming policy was a topic of discussion, Becotte responded the issue hasn’t come up at the bargaining table.

She claimed the government is using it to distract the public and hide the problems teachers and students deal with in the classroom.

“We have classrooms across the province that are growing and growing to a point where some kids don’t have desks,” Becotte added.

A classroom she heard from in northern Saskatchewan had 36 students go to the school and they didn’t have enough desks for them, resulting in some of them sitting on the floor.

“If I was a high school student and I knew I had to sit on the floor because there weren’t going to be enough desks for me, I probably wouldn’t be going back every day,” she added.

Becotte believed teachers are being villainized with regard to the new policy, adding teachers are not trying to keep secrets from students’ parents.

“The teachers (who) I talk to work really hard to get parents engaged in their classroom and engaged in their child’s learning and we obviously want what’s best for children,” she said.

According to the union president, salary is not the main focus of the bargaining talks.

However, she said teachers have not kept up with inflation, losing around 8.5 per cent because of it.

“We want high-quality teachers to come to this province. We want high-quality teachers to stay in this province,” Becotte said. “We need supports for our students and that starts with a qualified, certified teacher in the classroom.”

Becotte said she can’t confirm whether the contract talks will be done by the end of the month.

“It is in (the) government’s court,” she added. “All of these are political decisions, really, and so the fact that they’re not investing in education shows … how little they care about kids and about our classrooms.”