By paNOW Staff

Saskatchewan teachers reject latest contract

Jun 16, 2014 | 7:31 PM

Saskatchewan teachers have rejected the proposed tentative Provincial Collective Bargaining Agreement.

In a release posted to the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) website, 63 per cent of teachers voted no to the proposed deal of a 7.3 per cent raise over four years. A province-wide vote was held on June 5 that saw 13,236 ballots cast.

“The tentative agreement did not contain sufficient resources nor provide sufficient evidence of the government's commitment to re-engaging with teachers and solving issues of importance to the profession overall,” said Colin Keess, president of the STF.

Keess said some of teachers main concerns are centered around the number of hours each teacher works, the future of the school year and class sizes.

He said the next step will be to get both sides in the same room for conciliation.

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“Both sides sit down and they make an appeal to the conciliator and then we wait for the conciliator's decision as to where we move after that,” Keess said.

Keess emphasized a strike is not being discussed right now.

The situation is discouraging for government trustee bargaining committee spokesperson Connie Bailey.

“We're very disappointed to learn that the second tentative agreement was rejected,” Bailey said, adding that the committee wanted to work together with teachers.

“We made a commitment … to meet and to work collaboratively to discuss issues that are important to all of us and to work towards solutions – a shared solution – and we'll continue to do that.”

However, Bailey argues that the true issue may not be in the work being done at the table.

“This is our second negotiated agreement that we negotiated with the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation bargaining committee and it has been rejected,” she said. “So there seems to be a disconnect between the STF bargaining committee and its membership.”

Teachers have been without a provincial collective bargaining agreement since Aug. 31, 2013.

-With files from News Talk Radio's Trelle Burdeniuk and Brady Knight 

news@panow.com

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