The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation has kicked off another five-day countdown to additional job action, as the provincial government did not agree to continue negotiating on class size and complexity following Tuesday’s one-day strike.

STF President Samantha Becotte says the job action will begin on Monday, January 22nd, however parents and students might not learn exactly what the action entails until later in the week. She says five days of notice was given prior to Tuesday’s strike in order to give families time to arrange childcare. This time around, details on what type of job action teachers will be taking will be shared no later than Saturday at 8:00am, She understands that this might frustrate parents, and even more so that she also can’t specify long job action will last. “Job action could be another walkout, it could be a withdrawal of voluntary services, it could be a restriction of teacher’s hours of work, or more of a work to rule,” Becotte explains. She hopes taking a stand will get the provincial government back at the bargaining table. “This isn’t going to be solved in one year…This has been a decade long problem the government has created, but we need to start to see improvements and commitments toward getting us back to where we were when we were first in the country, but again, we are not eighth.”

On top of the one-day strike on Tuesday, Becotte says community members sent over 11,000 emails to Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Premier Scott Moe urging them to prioritize public education. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Teachers don’t want to be taking any sanction action. I can guarantee you teachers would have much rather been in their classrooms yesterday than out on the picket line in that extreme cold, but we cannot continue without knowing that our students will have the adequate supports that they need,” stated Becotte.