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mandryk: teachers' return to schools this week a win for sask. party
teachers aren't politicians. they're professionals who would prefer to do their jobs — disadvantageous, under the circumstances.
aug 27 2024
3 minute read
were teachers headed to the picket line as they were earlier this year, it would have been a loss for the saskatchewan party government.
michelle berg
/
saskatoon starphoenix
teachers are back at work, which is likely much better news for the saskatchewan party government than it is for teachers themselves.
although their contract remains unresolved, teachers returned to schools this week with a glimmer of hope that arbitration will mean better times ahead.
after all, there will eventually be a new arbitrated contract that will include a year’s worth of back-pay increases as a result of contract negotiations that lingered well past the expiration in august 2023. that new contract will have better money in the following years and will provide labour peace, which the vast majority of teachers clearly want.
however, when it comes to a meaningful, long-term solution to the key issue of classroom size (or composition and complexity, as it’s been called), there may not be much reason for teachers or anyone to assume arbitration will find the compromise solution that a sask. party government has seemed uninterested in addressing.
classroom size limits like in b.c.? even if an arbitrator were to propose something reasonable, it seems unlikely that this sask. party would simply acquiesce after opposing mandated classroom size limits in saskatchewan schools. moreover, it would be costly, and this government has made it clear that it’s not interested in spending more on education.
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so for many teachers, it seemed the better part of valour was to return to class and continue to — as best they can — patiently deal with oversized classrooms they are undoubtedly abuut to encounter. this now seems the nature of the occupation.
for governing politicians, it’s been a case of getting what they need within the election cycle … which is definitely the nature of the occupation.
at least politically speaking, the sask. party has won the battle.
after nasty contract negotiations that included insulting and misleading billboards and generally vilifying teachers, the government has got the one thing it most desperately wanted.
it got the arbitration delayed until hearings from dec. 16 to 20 — well after the oct. 28 election. arbitration could still be bit of a win for teachers, but given the election cycle, it’s a much bigger win for the sask. party government.
consider what the political climate would otherwise be for the saskatchewan party, which is already taking a slight dip in the opinion polls at the worst possible time.
had the two sides not agreed on arbitration, there’s a very real possibility that the rotating strikes would have continued and that premier scott moe and all his candidates would have been confronted by angry teachers at every campaign stop.
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that wouldn’t have made for great campaign visuals.
even some teachers — or at least, those not exactly enamoured with the deal hammered out last june, when the government finally blinked by allowing classroom composition and complexity language into arbitration — may be wondering why they didn’t militantly hold out and use their pre-election leverage to their utmost advantage.
it all boils down to the fact that teachers aren’t politicians. they are professionals who would simply prefer to do their jobs — which is disadvantageous under the circumstances.
sure, teachers aren’t traditional allies of right-wing governments. the ndp has even recruited a noticeable number of them to run, and probably convinced many, many more not to vote for the sask. party.
however, most teachers are professionals who — like most of us — have little interest in nasty political games.
if there was any political calculation on their part, it might have been that disrupting the sask. party’s re-election bid would have only stood to anger a governing party that’s likely to be re-elected.
rotating strikes this spring took a toll on the saskatchewan teachers’ federation’s strike fund … and teachers’ bank accounts.
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members of this union, which doesn’t even like to be called a union, mostly seem exhausted by the spring uproar. most of its members wanted to start the fall with a bit of hope and a clean slate.
being less political than the politicians was likely to the teachers’ detriment.
mandryk is the political columnist for the regina leader-post and the saskatoon starphoenix.
our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. for regina leader-post newsletters click here; for saskatoon starphoenix newsletters click here
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