Story of the year: Teachers’ contract clash ends up in arbitration

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A messy round of bargaining between the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) and the provincial government made big headlines in 2023, but the spiciest developments during negotiations were yet to come as talks dragged into 2024.

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The extended contract talks stretched across a full 12 months and saw the most days of job action from the teachers’ union in the province’s history.

The STF maintained throughout that it was finally time to negotiate on classroom size and complexity as a workplace condition because teachers have been experiencing increased violence in classrooms, overcrowding, and more complex student needs with fewer resources.

The Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee disagreed, doing its best to keep classroom complexity outside the negotiating room.

“I think it comes at a significant cost to local board autonomy, and that’s not something we’re prepared to do,” said then-education minister Jeremy Cockrill in March.

Bargaining began in March 2023 and the year concluded in a tense spot with teachers’ poised to enact job sanctions, which STF president Samantha Becotte called “virtually inevitable.”

Delivered in early January 2024, a report from the conciliation board urged both parties to continue negotiations, saying there was still too much open air between proposals.

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Over the next six months, the province announced a specialized classroom pilot project to separate students with behavioural needs from classrooms, plus an innovation grant for teachers, $30 million for relocatable classrooms, and a promise of $350 million for class complexity in the 2024-25 education budget — all outside any collective agreement talks.

Teachers, meanwhile, walked the picket line during three days of province-wide strikes and four days of rotating strikes, plus they enacted 29 days of noon-hour supervision and extracurricular withdrawals in conjunction with work-to-rule action.

Talks stalled several times during those months, with the dispute spilling over to social media in a way that has rarely been seen in Saskatchewan.

Warring videos were posted by both parties critiquing the state of negotiations, including in February when each claimed the other walked out on bargaining meetings at STF’s office in Saskatoon.

Bargaining stalled out almost completely over the teachers’ desire for legally binding language in the negotiated contract to assure a four-year agreement between the province and Saskatchewan School Board Association for $356.6 million in funding.

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Cockrill insisted the offer was presented in good faith, but Becotte said teachers “have been burned” before when it comes to government promises and demanded accountability language.

“If there’s no dispute resolution, then it’s no more than a pinky promise made among two people out on a school playground,” Becotte said in March.

Teachers rejected two offers presented for ratification in April and May, respectively, before the two committees eventually agreed to take the issues of wages and classroom complexity into binding arbitration, shaking hands on the decision in June.

Representatives appointed in July sat down for those meetings from Dec. 16 to Dec. 18 to close out the year.

It is now in the hands of a three-member arbitration panel to make a final ruling, but it’s not yet known when their decision might be rendered.

lkurz@postmedia.com

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