Saskatchewan Party

• Both conservative commentators and the premier have argued the bargaining table is not the place for teachers to negotiate concerns about classroom issues.
• Although bargaining is sometimes interpreted narrowly as a discussion over wages and benefits it is not, by its nature, limited to that.
• Bargaining can — and has — acted as a democratic tool to expand public resources to areas beyond workplace compensation.

Bargaining classroom size

• In Ontario, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has negotiated that the boards and government provide ongoing classroom size data to the union in order to determine future classroom ratios.
• The court ruled the government’s decision to unilaterally prevent teachers from bargaining classroom size and composition was a violation of their constitutional rights to bargaining collectively.

Cuts to education

The dispute in Saskatchewan did not come out of nowhere. There has been a 10 per cent drop in per-student funding since 2012-2013. In 2017, the Saskatchewan Party government cut funding to public education by $22 million from the previous fiscal year. In the same period, enrolments have risen to record numbers. These issues pushed teachers to a collective bargaining dispute in 2019, but it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staffing crises

• Becotte’s comments align with research showing attrition rates have hovered at close to 50 per cent over about the last decade.
• Squeezed board budgets have meant an increase in fees to some Saskatoon and Regina parents for lunch-time supervision.
• Numbers have dropped for many educational roles, including for educational assistants, English as an additional language teachers, counsellors, librarians, psychologists and other pathologists.

‘Parents rights’ issues

• The government said this was an issue of parents’ rights.
• Yet many others interpreted it as an attack on the ability of teachers to provide necessary support and guidance to kids in a safe and supportive environment.

Bargaining as important tool

• Trying to prevent teachers from including issues surrounding unmet student needs in bargaining is to effectively leave the public in the dark on the conditions of our schools and render governments largely unaccountable.
• The most important tool that all unionized workers have at their disposal is their ability to collectively bargain.
• Many of these campaigns have been waged by teachers’ unions.

Unions driving change

• CUPW’s success encouraged other unions to take a similar position and today public maternity/paternity leave is a universal public program.
• Unions and their members have real power when they use the tools available to them to seek real workplace and community change.

Bargaining about trade-offs

• Prioritizing issues related to what unions identify as key “common good” themes might mean that other issues cannot be highlighted.
• While salaries and benefits will always be an issue, there is overwhelming teacher support for existing bargaining proposals.

Simon Enoch is a member of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party Charles Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.