The Nova Scotia Teachers Union has backed down on its threat to strike.
President Liette Doucet says the union executive had to weight the strike mandate against the gains they made.
Government agreed to abandon the proposed college of teachers and a central assessment model and to maintain the current job seniority system.
However, Doucet says the union still does not support the Education Reform Act.
“We have absolutely not accepted this. We believe that our administrators are teachers first. We believe that our administrators belong in the NSTU and we will continue to fight that part of the legislation.”
Principals/vice principals being removed from @NSTeachersUnion but will remain an affiliation to maintain seniority pic.twitter.com/LvjRQH8Fpk
— Ed Halverson (@edwardhalverson) March 1, 2018
Administrators, including principals and vice principals, will remain affiliated with the union but are no longer permitted to be union members.
She feels the illegal strike mandate they received was important in getting government to listen to their concerns.
“They want government to listen to what they have been asking for, for years. That was part of the reason why they did vote to give us a strike mandate, and yes, I do believe it had an impact on government.”
Doucet says while a strike is off the table, members will continue making their voices heard as the bill makes its way through the Legislature.
All 24 members of @NSTeachersUnion executive met today to discuss education changes. Presidential Liette Doucet addressing new legislation pic.twitter.com/IJlr7f4t7D
— Ed Halverson (@edwardhalverson) March 1, 2018
Premier Stephen McNeil believes the Education Reform Act will achieve the reforms government wanted.
It will also allow them to go ahead with recommendations from the Inclusion Report, due later this month.
McNeil says meetings between the two sides earlier this week allowed the union to express their concerns.
“The college for example is a self-regulating body. They chose not to have that as a profession. It was something they believe we can do in-house with them. We accepted that. We’re not going to enforce a self-regulating, professional body on somebody who doesn’t want it.”
When asked why government is increasing the penalties for illegal strike actions ten-fold, the premier says the Education Act hasn’t been addressed in years and government is bringing the fines in line with today’s dollars.
At a meeting with Doucet Monday, the Premier introduced the idea of allowing principals to remain affiliated with the union.
McNeil says the compromise allowed both sides to get some of what they wanted.
“I’ve said this from the very beginning, we needed principals and vice-principals out of the bargaining unit. This allowed us, with the affiliation, for them to protect their seniority and the benefits within, they’ve already accumulated.”
The Premier is now looking ahead to working with the union to address issues of inclusion in the classroom.
That report is expected to be released later this month.
