Samantha Becotte of the STF says negotiations ended after the province refused to add one line to the bargaining agreement. (Screenshot, STF press conference)

By Susan McNeil

2024 STF work to rule

No deal: STF starts indefinite work to rule on Monday

Apr 5, 2024 | 3:00 PM

Students across Saskatchewan will being going back to school on Monday but won’t be allowed in the building until 15 minutes before and longer than 15 minutes afterwards.

They will also not be providing any extracurricular supervision or any service outside of their professional duties, the STF said in a news conference Friday afternoon, just hours after the province refused to add a line committing to long term funding for classroom complexity to the agreement.

Their concern with the multi-year funding agreement signed between the province and Saskatchewan Schools Boards Association several weeks ago is that the province can change its mind and its funding at any time.

“These agreements are not binding. The minister keeps saying they are committed to carrying out these agreements, but when the actions of government continually contradict their words, it’s difficult to trust anything they say,” she said.

Teachers and the province have been bargaining all week and the STF position came down to adding one line to their contract, Becotte said.

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“We had requested that one line be added to the collective agreement with teachers, and that line was that the parties agree that the multi-year funding agreement and the accountability framework will be followed and honored. That was it. Just do what you say you’re committing to do.”

Earlier this afternoon, they were told the line would not be added.

Teachers will begin work to rule on Monday, which means that students will not be supervised more than 15 minutes before school starts and not for longer than 15 minutes at the end of the day.

No lunch hour or extracurricular activities that aren’t part of normal professional duties will have teacher supervision either.

In the rotating strikes that preceded Friday’s announcement, some school divisions opted to allow students to remain in school for a shorter lunch break and start dismissal earlier.

That decision will still be up to each school division to make.

Teachers will not participate in things like graduation planning either, she said.

Recently, Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill and the Sask. School Boards Association said that alternative plans would be made if negotiations were ongoing.

He told battlefordsNOW following the STF announcement that the government is not prepared to change things because the budget has been passed.

“There’s a process that every provincial government regardless of political stripe…they introduce a budget, they debate it through committee and in the House and then it gets voted on,” Cockrill said.

That is the appropriation process. So for a union to say we want to skip all that, we want to forget about the way the budget process actually works…That’s what the STF are asking for. We’re not going to do that. We’re not going to change the whole way that taxpayer dollars are allocated and spent to satisfy one union. That’s ridiculous.”

Bargaining between the STF and the government appointed committee – which includes members of the SSBA – began in May 2023, almost one year ago.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com