Full-day teacher strikes to hit Regina, other school divisions on Monday: STF
CBC
Teachers in several school divisions won't come to work on Monday, the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) said Friday, including in the public and Catholic school divisions in Regina.
The STF says it is escalating the past five days of job action and has issued formal notice of the one-day rotating strike on March 4. The schools and school divisions affected on Monday are:
Stuck in a months-long bargaining deadlock with the province, teachers have been taking intermittent job actions since mid-January.
Monday's strike coincides with the first day of the Legislature's spring sitting, and STF president Samantha Becotte said teachers will be picketing outside the building on Monday.
"We do not want to be taking these actions. As much as students enjoy the opportunities that teachers provide through their voluntary services, the teachers who provide those services love providing them as well," Becotte told reporters from Saskatoon on Friday.
"Unfortunately, because of now a decade of underfunding that we have experienced, teachers are being put into an impossible situation where they cannot simply meet the needs of students in their classroom."
Teachers have been rotating withdrawing lunch supervision and extracurricular duties that have forced many school divisions to send students home at lunch or close early.
And starting on Tuesday, teachers province-wide will not participate or run extra-curricular activities for at least two days and possibly longer if the government doesn't come to the table with a new mandate.
Curling Canada told CBC News that the Monday job action means up to 526 students and school staff won't be able to attend the Brier in Regina, slightly more than half of the 1,010 tickets it said it issued for schools that day.
An average of 1,435 school program tickets have been issued each day for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the organization said in a Friday email to CBC, adding it's unclear how many may be impacted until further job action is announced.
Teachers say the province refuses to discuss provisions to address class size and supports for students with complex needs, while the education ministry has said the main issue is salary increases.
CBC News has made multiple requests for an interview with Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill since Monday, but he has not been made available.
In identical emailed statements sent to CBC on Monday and Thursday, the education ministry called the strikes "unfortunate" and blamed teachers for disrupting student learning and inconveniencing families.
It said $53.1 million in funding for class complexity — which includes previously announced amounts of $3.6 million for a pilot program in eight school divisions and $40 million for school divisions dealing with growing enrolment — will be made into annual commitments, a deal supported by the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.
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