Frustrated with a lack of progress on their new contract negotiations, Saskatchewan's teachers did something they had never done before ... they walked off the job to engage in a series of one-day study sessions last Thursday that also included a rally at the Saskatchewan Legislature.
The study sessions that were arranged around the province included one that was convened in the Civic Auditorium in Estevan involving approximately 350 to 400 educators who were engaged in a four-hour session.
The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation, the body that represents the more than 13,000 teachers across the province, has been bargaining for a new contract since the previous agreement had expired in August of last year. The bargaining unit of STF is negotiating with the provincial government that controls the purse strings, and the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA)
The main issue is salary, with the province currently offering a 5.5 per cent wage hike over three years while the STF's opening request was for 12 per cent over one year.
One attempt at conciliation has failed and no new offers or counter offers have hit the negotiation table yet.
"The point we are trying to make today is to bring the government back to the table," said STF representative Colin Keess, who is a member of the federation's executive and is on their negotiating team.
"We don't want to be here," he said, looking around the lobby of the Civic Auditorium as dozens of educators filed in behind him, waiting to register just prior to the 10 a.m. start of the study session.
"We want to be in the classrooms."
While a 12 per cent increase may appear to be out-of-line on the surface, Keess said the STF was simply seeking an historic adjustment to restore buying power that was sacrificed in the past.
He said the federation went back as far as 1983 in noting the previous contract negotiations when the members gave up expected wage hikes and benefits in the interest of maintaining peace and remaining in the classrooms.
"I don't know how many people recall those years, several years, when we agreed to accept zero, zero and one per cent wage increases, or 1.5 per cent increases just because times were tough in the province and we wanted to be good team players. There were tacit messages sent out by previous governments that if we played ball with them, we'd catch up later when times turned better. Well, times are better now and teachers lost a lot over the years," said Keess.
While 12 per cent and one year may have been a starting point for the STF, the government has not returned with anything other than the 5.5 per cent over three years and thus the educators felt the need to remove their services last Thursday after giving notice about their intention to do so two days earlier.
"The executive and our bargaining team has done their homework, and we just hope we won't have to do anything other than this to get the government negotiators back to the table," Keess added.
With the support of 95 per cent of the membership favouring strike action, if necessary, Keess said the numbers simply revealed "our level of frustration."
Keess said he would open the study session along with STF representative Marilyn McCutcheon, by bringing the prepared greetings from STF president Steve Allen and the federation's general secretary Gwen Dueck and then proceed with question and answer and breakout sessions to complete the agenda.
Keess said while wages claim the most attention, other issues such as pensions, maternity benefits, health plans, administration allowances and preparation times were also on the list.
"It's been a long and arduous process. We've had some difficult 30 days of bargaining and conciliation and we're hoping the government's negotiating team will see this event for what it is and will see the worth and value of having teachers in the schools," Keess added, noting that a similar study session for Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerston School Division teachers was also planned for Moosomin while several more teachers were heading up to Regina to participate in the rally.
"When you're paid on a salary grid, and you accept a zero per cent wage increase, your paycheque doesn't grow," said Keess. He said that Saskatchewan teacher salaries are now averaging out well behind Alberta's salary structures as well as Manitoba's.
"Of course the counter argument is that the cost of living is supposedly higher in Alberta, but that is no longer the case. The prices of housing and other items tell us differently. The cost of living in Saskatchewan is comparable," Keess added.
"This is not a strike," the STF negotiator said again, emphasizing the point.
"It's a study session and parents and public are aware that our commitment to the students, to the children, is still unwavering and our commitment to our profession too," he said.
When asked how the environment and mood were around the bargaining table, Keess said that both sides have been polite and respectful up to this point, but the frustration level was certainly escalating from the STF's perspective.
"After you go at it for 30 days and still see no movement and the conciliator gives up, saying the gap is too wide, yes, it's frustrating," he said.
So far no other attempt at conciliation, arbitration or mediation has been suggested by either side.
The negotiation effort is engaging not only Keess on the STF side of the issue, but Estevan trustee and SSBA vice-president Janet Foord can also be found at the bargaining table, being one of their appointed representatives in the process.
