On Friday April 5, 2024, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation announced the beginning of work-to-rule measures, after another disappointing round of talks with the Minister of Education.

This is an extremely serious step. And let’s be clear how we got here. We are here because of an intransigent minister and an intransigent government who show zero interest in introducing class size and class complexity measures that are commonplace in collective agreements across Canada.

It’s a simple request, one that has been a part of the STF’s proposal package since the very beginning of negotiations. However, this appears to be a non-starter for a government bent on maintaining control at all cost. The Minister would rather deliberately mislead the public with false allegations about teachers trying to “move the goalposts”.

We are here because of this government’s complete lack of interest in funding publicly delivered, public education — to the point where they have allowed inflation adjusted per student operating funding to slip from first place in Canada in 2016 to likely 10th place after the implications of the latest Saskatchewan budget work their way through the education sector.

We are here because of this minister’s outright refusal to include one sentence in a new collective bargaining agreement:

“The parties agree that the Multi-Year Funding Agreement and the accountability framework will be followed and honoured.”

Instead of good faith bargaining, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Education would rather villainize teachers with silly billboards and bully school boards into silence.

He continually shows contempt for teachers and contempt for public education.

Jeremy Cockrill doesn’t care about public education. He has another agenda.

And because of his intransigence, students, teachers, parents and Saskatchewan writ large will suffer.

No one wanted this, but here we are.

And let’s be clear about why we are here.

Here is the latest STF News Conference with President Samantha Becotte: