Action was escalating until early this week when the provincial government announced the hiring of a special mediator to assist the Saskatchewan Teacher's Federation (STF) and the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee (GTBC) in reaching a collective agreement.
The STF has also provided assurance that there will be no further job action during the 2010/2011 school year which means normal school operations will be resumed for the month of June.
"We wish to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during the recent STF job action," says Dwayne Reeve, Director of Education for the Good Spirit School Division. "We are optimistic the mediation process will lead to an agreement."
Last week teachers were off the job for two days and the STF threatened a partial withdrawal of services.
"We came back to the bargaining table with the assumption that the government was fully prepared to bring increased resources to the table," said Gwen Dueck, spokesperson for the Teachers' Bargaining Committee.
"Instead, we heard that the government was prepared to provide teachers with an additional 0.55 per cent increase from their (original) offer of 5.5 per cent over three years."
According to Dueck there has been an inconsistency when the government speaks of valuing teachers, "but there seems to be little willingness to demonstrate that in the collective agreement process. Instead, teachers are being threatened with layoffs and being attacked for wanting to participate in Saskatchewan's booming economy."
Following a recent round of talks, Dueck said "regretfully we did not hear or see evidence that gives us any confidence that this government is prepared to bargain in good faith. They demonstrated no flexibility and failed to bring increased resources for us to consider what might become an acceptable collective agreement.
"I can tell you with absolute certainty that these kinds of minor adjustments do not contribute to the development of a collective agreement that would be acceptable to our membership or that would affirm the worth of teachers."
Dueck emphasized that ultimately this is about public education and students, while adding that "if the government is truly concerned about the educational outcomes of students, they would have settled with teachers at the bargaining table."
Last week in Yorkton teachers were off the job along with others across the province, for two days. During that time members of the Catholic Division opted to clean up a portion of the city by picking garbage.
Local teacher Rhonda Falconer says, "Instead of taking picketing action, in light of our break down with contracts, we are trying to better our community... we hope it ends soon. I hope they come to an agreement soon that shows the worth of teachers in Saskatchewan."
