The teachers strike was put on hold for the time being as the provincial government appointed a mediator to arbitrate a settlement in the contract dispute between the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation and the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee, in a late-breaking announcement on Tuesday morning.
At the request of both parties, Labour Relations minister Don Morgan appointed Richard Hornung, Q.C., as a special mediator to help end the dispute; in the meantime, both sides have agreed to work with the mediator, and agreed to suspend all job action and advertising activity until the mediation process reaches a resolution.
If the mediator is unable to obtain a consensus between the parties by June 10, he will prepare a report for consideration by the minister of Education and cabinet, and will be submitted on or before June 30. As job action is being suspended, then all extra-curricular activities should be able to resume at schools, if those events are still able to proceed.
This follows a province-wide action when the STF went on strike and teachers took strike action across the province on Wednesday and Thursday after initial negotiations for a new contract with the provincial government fell through. A big part of the STF's demands is for a 16.3 per cent pay raise over a three-year period be included in the new contract. The STF has been without a contract since August 2010.
Teachers from Weyburn, Midale, Radville and the Holy Family School Division held a rally outside of Dustin Duncan's office, the MLA for the Weyburn-Big Muddy constituency, on Wednesday afternoon. Duncan was not present for the rally as he had to fly to Victoria for a meeting that afternoon. After standing with picket signs outside of Duncan's office the teachers took their rally on the road. The teachers paraded around downtown Weyburn and walked up to St. Dominic Savio School on Fourth Street, drawing honks from supporters who drove past the procession.
"We're here in support of the Saskatchewan teachers across the province, and we would like to see the Government-Trustee's side back to the bargaining table, to either be willing participants and look at our three year offer, or to go to binding arbitration," said Chad Klein, president of the Holy Family Teachers' Association. "We think that's fair and reasonable, and we want something that's going to be acceptable to teachers across this province. We'd like to see all the work and effort the teachers do across this province affirmed and recognized by our provincial governments and our school boards."
"The STF's current demand of 16.3 per cent amounts to about $320 million over three years. That is unsustainable and Saskatchewan taxpayers' simply can't afford that kind of an increase," said Education Minister Donna Harpauer in a recent press release. "Our current offer of more than $100 million over three years would make Saskatchewan teachers among the highest paid in Canada. The government is prepared to be flexible to obtain a negotiated settlement, but $320 million is simply unrealistic."
"Our number one priority is that we can get this sorted out so students can graduate and write finals on time," said Duncan. "We don't want to see this strike negatively effect students chances at getting scholarships who may be moving on to post-secondary education."
Duncan has been in regular contact with local teaching groups to discuss issues that concern the teachers in his constituency.
Despite getting two days off from school in the middle of the week, not all students took the two days off. A few students from Weyburn Comprehensive joined the teachers in Wednesday's rally to show their support.
"We love our teachers. All the extra hours they put in, it's awesome," said Kelsey Jensen, who picketed along with her sister Kaylyn and mom, teacher Joanne Jensen.
"They deserve it, they deserve it," said Kaylyn.
The strike has affected students in more ways than just giving them a few days off. All extracurricular activities that fell on Wednesday or Thursday were canceled. This included the St. Michael band trip to Brandon. The band was scheduled to leave for the trip on Thursday evening.
The latest job action began on Monday as it was announced teachers would be withdrawing voluntary services. Voluntary services include all extracurricular activities such as track, drama, band concerts, extra help for students, and awards nights.
"Teachers do not take this action lightly. They too enjoy providing these valuable opportunities for students," Gwen Dueck, the spokesperson for the Teachers' Bargaining Committee, said in a prepared statement. "All of the actions taken by teachers, including the withdrawal of voluntary services, are intended to apply pressure to the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee."
Locally, Marc Casavant, education director of the Southeast Cornerstone School Division, said they designed a contingency plan in regard to the cancellation of voluntary services.
"All extracurricular activities are canceled on a day-to-day basis," said Casavant. This meant if an agreement was reached, extracurricular activities will resume, such as by Tuesday's announcement to suspend this job action. Co-curricular activities such as field trips will be affected on a case by case basis. If they happen between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. or 1. p.m. and 3:30 p.m., they will still run. If changes occur the schools will contact parents.
"We can't risk having extracurricular activities without a teacher presence due to safety risks and the potential legal ramifications if a student was hurt," said Casavant
Graduation ceremonies also fall under voluntary services, however they will not be canceled. If an agreement hasn't been reached by the time grad ceremonies begin, teachers will participate in events that happen during regular school hours. Parents, school community council, and community members can organize grad activities outside of these hours.
The STF is acknowledging that teachers are making a sacrifice in canceling voluntary services that they enjoy, but the real victims in this situation are the students.
"I think they're punishing their own people. We've prepared a drama performance and now we can't do it," said Weyburn Comp student Braden Clarke, referring to the Comp musical, "All Shook Up." The dinner theatre performance happened on Friday evening, but the other four shows were canceled; it was not known Tuesday morning if the shows would now go ahead due to the suspension of the job action. Other members of the cast voiced their disappointment if the shows are canceled.
"We only get one show now even though everyone put a lot of hard work into it," said Paige Bartlett.
"It's a lot of hard work that goes toward nothing," said Breanne Walkeden. "I'm also on the SRC and we can't plan events either. The track team also can't go to districts or provincials despite all their work."
"I think it's pretty stupid. They should figure it out quick because they're messing up people's lives," said Braylan Haupstein.
The Teacher's Bargaining Committee and the Government Trustee Bargaining Committee returned to the bargaining table on Sunday. The government has asked the STF for assurance that final exams and finals will not be delayed due to the strike. The STF holds the stance that it is up to the Education ministry if students will have their finals and/or graduation delayed. Therefore the STF said they can't guarantee if students will write finals and graduate on time, and that they have not ruled out more strike days.
