Nova Scotia’s unionized public school teachers are planning job action next week.
Contract talks between the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and provincial government broke off last week.
The NSTU announced today that a work-to-rule campaign will go into effect beginning Monday December 5.
All nstu members please check nstu email for important information!
— Yarmouthlocalnstu (@Yarmouthlocalns) November 28, 2016
NSTU first vice-president Wally Fiander teaches grades 10 and 11 at Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School.
He says the job action is meant to bring attention to the issues which he says boil down to classroom working conditions.
” The reality is that working conditions for teachers right now are unmanageable. We’re finding that it’s basically impossible for us to do our job, do it justice and do it the way we think it should be done and we think the children, the students are suffering for that. We really are hoping to have a meaningful change on working conditions in the classroom. “
Fiander was asked if the government’s claims that teachers don’t want to negotiate are true.
“Absolutely not. I actually sit on the negotiating team and we did meet on Friday to negotiate. What happened on Friday was we did have some documents passed back and forth and we put 15 items on the table and 14 of those were working condition items. Of those 14 items, the government dismissed all 14 items. They were willing to to talk about salary which was our 15th item but they dismissed our items on working conditions. That for us is unacceptable. We definitely want to talk about working conditions. We want to negotiate working conditions.
#NSTUPrez @lsdoucet explains to media what #WTR will mean on Dec 5. pic.twitter.com/ZEAtHFzKRT
— NS Teachers Union (@NSTeachersUnion) November 28, 2016
According to the NSTU work-to-rule means teachers will arrive 20 minutes before school and leave 20 minutes after.
They will not collect money from students, perform clerical duties or data entry tasks.
Attendance will be monitored on paper.
There will be no extra-curricular activities such as concerts, team coaching, clubs or field trips.
