Saskatchewan schools including in Lloydminster will be closed as the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation or STF says its strike action will see some 4,000 teachers marching at the Legislature in Regina on Wednesday Mar. 20 while the provincial budget is being tabled.
In a statement on its website ahead of budget day, the teachers’ union is maintaining its call for binding arbitration on class sizes and complexity issues and that the government give its bargaining team the power to negotiate on those matters as the conversation for a new collective agreement has stalled.
The one-day strike will be followed by the withdrawal of extracurricular activities on Thursday, Mar. 21 and Friday, Mar. 22.
On Mar. 8, the province announced a $1.4 billion investment for school boards with a minimum of $356.6 million per year for four years for classroom supports and youth mental health resources.
The STF says despite proposals in the budget, “they have little hope that the increase in funding will remain next year.” They want the government to commit to that funding at the bargaining table “to provide accountability on that funding and that school boards would commit that funding to the classroom.”
The STF is willing to return to the bargaining table if the government commits to binding arbitration or gives its bargaining team a mandate to negotiate on classroom sizes and complexity which the STF sees as the teachers’ working and the students’ learning conditions.
