Last week was a win for the Sask. Party government because the conversation switched from the classroom issues to teachers' wage demands.
What started as a really good week for the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) turned into a less-than-good-week when the narrative shifted from the problems in classrooms to the salary demands of teachers.
This wasn’t necessarily fair to the teachers, for a few reasons.
The Saskatchewan Party government’s initial offer last summer of seven per cent over three years (three, two and two in 2023, 2024 and 2025) and its ongoing refusal to address classroom composition and complexity is why these negotiations have been stalled for eight months.
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Instead, a government that “doesn’t negotiate in the media” launched a billboard campaign (paid for with taxpayers’ dollars — including those contributed by teachers) claiming a seven per cent increase was a “fair deal for teachers” and misleadingly suggesting a $92,000 “average” annual Saskatchewan teacher salary that’s $1,700 more than the western Canadian average.
On Tuesday, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill upped the political rhetoric ante by posting on social media that “while the STF says this isn’t about money, they continue to demand a 23.5 per cent increase.” (Again, when the government says it doesn’t “negotiate in the media” it doesn’t count media it can buy and that doesn’t ask it questions.)
That said, a 23.5 per cent increase is a lot. Or at least, it would be if it were the end-of-the-day reality.
The STF countered that the government offer is a two per cent raise in each of the four years, plus Saskatchewan’s average annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase. STF president Samantha Becotte, said it was to make up for an 8.5 per cent reduction in purchasing power since 2017.
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It’s a bit of a pie-in-the-sky request we’d all like to have but virtually no one got … except maybe Saskatchewan MLAs, whose salaries have increased 54 per cent in the last two decades because they legislated annual Cost of Living Adjustment increases for themselves. Hmmm?
Anyway, according to government math, that amounts to 23.5 per cent during the four-year contract, based on the CPI increasing 6.8 per cent in 2023, 3.9 per cent in 2024, 2.4 per cent in 2025 and 2.3 per cent for 2026.
The figures adding up the 23.5 per cent were prepared by the Finance Ministry and were based on the inflation rate for the previous year, a government spokesperson told the Leader-Post’s Alex Salloum.
However, the Saskatchewan 2022 CPI was 6.6 per cent, not 6.8 per cent. Also, this was based on national CPI figures — not Saskatchewan figures. And as Finance Minister Donna Harpauer told reporters on Thursday, CPI figures are hard to predict.
All this makes Cockrill’s notion that teachers are “demanding” a 23.5 per cent increase a spin … and a fairly misleading spin at that.
But the reason last week was still a win for the Sask. Party government is that the conversation switched from classroom issues to teachers’ wage demands. That’s a problem for the teachers.
Some will characterize the tactics of Cockrill and the government as dirty pool, but the STF wasn’t completely forthright on its CPI indexing request, either. It appears the issues go beyond classroom composition and complexity.
There again, it’s also the government’s job to address those problems in the classroom that it says are off the table. Wouldn’t the STF back off its wage demands in exchange for addressing classroom issues?
Here’s where things might get interesting …
The STF will ramp up job action like it plans to do on Monday. An intransigent government will be looking at legislating teachers back to work at some point.
That’s likely why Cockrill et al were trying to sell the 23.5 per cent wage demand — to build a case for doing so, at least within the Sask. Party’s political base in rural Saskatchewan.
The problem for the government, however, is back-to-work legislation would be accompanied by arbitration that might impose a settlement closer to what the teachers want. And who knows what else an arbitrator would recommend?
Perhaps the best solution would be for the government to consider giving teachers what they initially said they wanted out of this contract — a lower wage settlement, but a pool of money set aside to deal with classroom composition and complexity.
Gee, wouldn’t that be a win for everyone?
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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