Northern Lights School Division will participate in a one-day strike on Tuesday. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

job action

Classes cancelled in Air Ronge, La Ronge on Tuesday due to provincial strike

Jan 15, 2024 | 4:43 PM

Teachers in the tri-communities, as well as from Weyakwin, will be protesting outside La Ronge’s Mistasinhk Place on Tuesday as part of a province-wide one-day strike.

That means classes at Churchill Community High School, Gordon Denny Community School, Kiskahikan School and Pre-Cam Community School will be cancelled. Along with the protest outside Mistasinhk Place, there will also be a vehicle parade as part of the demonstration.

“The challenge is years ago we were number one. We had the best contract, the highest per student funding in Canada and now we are number eight. In general, this government has decided to cut funding to education, even during times of inflation,” said Natalie Aldridge, the vice-president of the Northern Area Teaching Association.

“That has more of an impact to learning than just teacher’s salaries. If it was just about teacher’s salaries, we could have agreed on that, but that’s not the concern. The concern is size class complexity and compensation, as well as violence in the classroom. Those are the two main bargaining points that we would like to see the government come back and give their bargaining team a new mandate that they can actually start negotiating on those specific proposals.”

At the end of November, teachers in Saskatchewan held a sanction vote in which approximately 90 per cent participated. The vote showed 95 per cent were in favour of job action.

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The government is offering teachers a seven per cent increase to salaries over three years.

“At present, it always kind of returns to the fact [the provincial government] have their own offers they are willing to negotiate on, but as far as the offers that our teacher’s federation has put forward … they just seem unwilling to negotiate, so it has been a real challenge,” Aldridge said.

In a public notice issued Friday, the Northern Lights School Division stated as a result of the one-day strike, all classes, transportation and extracurricular activities would be cancelled on Tuesday.

“As a school division, we respect the collective bargaining process,” the notice states.

“Our number one priority is the safety of our students, and we are committed to keeping parents, caregivers and families informed of future job action and changes to school operations.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com