A press conference held this morning by Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation (STF) President Samantha Becotte shed light on last night’s vote. 

Last night, members of the STF voted 90 per cent against the provincial government’s ‘final offer’. The offer included a 3 percent increase in salary, taking effect retroactively at the beginning of this school year.  

According to Becotte, the significant rejection of the offer is due to the lack of recognition of calls for smaller class sizes and class complexity. 

“Regardless of when this bargaining round is completed, we know that we aren't going to solve all the issues around classroom complexity in one round,” Becotte explained. “We'll continue to advocate for improvements in the years to come. This is a decade-long problem, but we need to start addressing it.” 

The Teachers’ Bargaining Committee extended an invitation to the Government-Trustees Bargaining Committee to return to negotiations on May 13 and 14. This could mean a rehashed deal, or the introduction of new sanctions. 

“Nothing is off the table,” stated Becotte when asked about the extent of possible sanctions. “As I've said in the past, we constantly consider all potential job actions. What the impact would be on obviously teachers as our members, but also students and their families and we're always looking at how we get the government to come back to the table. That is always our goal. How can we get to an agreement, and what is it going to take to get to an agreement that has the least disruption, but is the most effective?”