Saskatchewan teachers were on strike on Feb. 1 for the third time this year, with all Moose Jaw and area schools closed for the day and hundreds of educators and their supporters brandishing protest signs on Thatcher Drive between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Local Teachers' Association leadership signed up participating staff at stations in the Superstore parking lot and at Hillcrest Golf Club. They said STF members are more engaged and committed than ever, with no strike fatigue setting in so far.
If anything, organizers noted, the warmer weather and rotating nature of this round of strikes have drawn even more people out, with some participants travelling from Regina, Swift Current, and other areas to swell the protest's numbers.
The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) began strike action on Jan. 16 in response to months of stalled negotiations with the Government Trustee Bargaining Committee. A second province-wide one-day strike followed on Jan. 22.
On Jan. 29, the STF announced a series of rotating one-day strikes, beginning Feb. 1 with Moose Jaw's Prairie South School Division and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division, as well as Distance Learning Centre teachers and French schools in the district.
Moose Jaw was joined by Teachers' Association representing Horizon School Division, Prince Albert Catholic School Division, Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division, Light of Christ Catholic School Division, Living Sky School Division, and Sakewew High School in North Battleford.
The STF is demanding that the issues of classroom size and complexity be part of a new collective agreement, in addition to salary and cost-of-living considerations.
The province has refused, saying those issues should be addressed by individual school divisions. Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill has characterized the strikes as revolving around unreasonable pay asks and has, along with his government, repeatedly expressed "disappointment" at how the strikes are disrupting families' schedules.
The STF has yet to announce which school divisions are next on the rotation schedule.
