WYANT’S LAMENT
‘Pretty good’ offer should have been put to vote
Saskatchewan’s education minister says the province’s teachers should have had an opportunity to vote on a “pretty good” contract proposal before deciding to escalate a smouldering labour dispute with job action.
At the same time, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, which walked away from conciliation efforts last week, should have waited for the final report on those talks before calling a sanctions vote, Gord Wyant said.
“I’ve been quite disappointed with the way things have gone,” Wyant said, less than 24 hours after the STF said its 13,500 members will vote on possible job action on Feb. 10 and 11.
“It’s frustrating,” added Wyant, who was regarded as the STF’S preferred choice during the Saskatchewan Party leadership race, but has found himself increasingly at odds with the federation since taking over as education minister.
“My request of the STF is pretty simple: Put the contract out to the teachers, let them vote on it, and if the vote is negative then they can look to their members for a sanctions vote, that’s fair enough,” Wyant said.
Saskatchewan teachers last voted on a tentative agreement in 2013.
Two years later, local teachers’ associations in Saskatoon and Regina cried foul after they were denied the opportunity to vote on a proposed collective agreement.
Patrick Maze, who is now president of the STF, but was then leading the Regina Public School Teachers’ Association, called the federation’s then-unprecedented decision to accept the contract without a vote a “huge frustration.”
Maze said Friday that taking the government’s contract proposal to the federation’s members would signal that the bargaining committee believes it is good enough to consider, which is not the case.
“There’s basically nothing there. And if we take that to our members, they’re going to look at it and go, ‘Oh, well our own bargaining team thinks we should consider this.’ And the bottom line is, we don’t,” Maze said.
Maze went on to say the federation acted before the conciliator issued his report because it already knows the process failed. Both sides remain at odds over what has become the main sticking point in negotiations.
That issue involves the size and composition of classes. While the government and the STF agree the province’s classrooms are overburdened and its teachers under-resourced, they are deeply divided on the best way to resolve the problem.
The STF regards the issue as central to its members’ working conditions, and wants a mechanism negotiated into its next contract to ensure classes are not overwhelming. An arbitrator turned down a similar request from the federation in 2018.
The provincial government maintains that proposal is unworkable, and has struck a committee to study the issue and find solutions. The committee is expected to report back this spring. The STF has refused to send a representative to the committee.
“We have to find the solutions together. Once we put it in the contract, it takes away the ability of local school divisions to make local decisions,” Wyant said, adding the problem differs across Saskatchewan and seems most acute in Saskatoon and Regina.