{"id":7167,"date":"2024-04-18T15:57:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7167"},"modified":"2024-04-18T15:57:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:57:58","slug":"nova-scotia-teachers-reach-agreement-in-principle-in-contract-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/04\/18\/nova-scotia-teachers-reach-agreement-in-principle-in-contract-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia, teachers reach ‘agreement in principle’ in contract talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Premier Tim Houston speaks to reporters on Thursday about an agreement with Nova Scotia teachers. (Nova Scotia government Facebook page)<\/p><\/div>\n

Nova Scotia will likely avoid a teachers\u2019 strike as government and union negotiators reached an \u201cagreement in principle\u201d late Wednesday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union entered conciliation talks with government negotiators on Monday and Tuesday with a 98 per cent strike mandate. More than 10,000 teachers and educational specialists voted last Thursday to go on strike if an agreement couldn\u2019t be reached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Teachers are concerned about rising levels of violence in schools, teacher recruitment and retention, and compensation for substitute and permanent teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Premier Tim Houston joined the talks himself on Monday night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Houston told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Thursday that he believes the agreement addresses many of the union\u2019s concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s an agreement that teachers can be proud of,” he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I did personally attend the bargaining table late on Monday evening and tried to make it clear at that point that we heard the voices of teachers and the NSTU and that this government shares their focus on students, student outcomes and classroom conditions. I think teachers will see significant investments in these areas in the agreement. It’s an agreement that responds to the call that students can’t wait. … Our government has great respect for teachers and our focus was on reaching a deal that was fair to teachers and ensured improved classroom conditions for students and teachers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan Lutes, president of the teachers union, said in an interview Thursday that the premier\u2019s presence at the bargaining table seemed to move things along.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe premier was helpful,” Lutes said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Up until that point, I would say our negotiating team saw very little movement on the issues that mattered to teachers and students. The premier shared his commitment to improving classroom conditions, to improving work-life balance for teachers and his desire to invest in public schools, and I think that spurred his team along into eventually getting an agreement with teachers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, it\u2019s only a verbal agreement. Lead negotiators for both sides are still hammering out the language. As soon as the union\u2019s bargaining team sees and signs off on the document, they can call it a tentative agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lutes said it will likely take another week or two before teachers see something they can vote on. Details won\u2019t be released until that happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t believe the premier would have spurred along his own negotiating team without the strong strike mandate. I think our members were really important. The message came through with the strong strike mandate that members aren\u2019t going to accept an agreement that doesn\u2019t move their priorities forward. And I think the premier heard that. He was able to pretty positively contribute to that discussion on Monday night.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The premier said his government shares teachers\u2019 concerns about classroom and working conditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“We knew the importance of the negotiations for sure. That was never diminished and that was never a second thought in our mind. So we\u2019re really happy that we\u2019ve been able to reach the agreement in principle. When it\u2019s all said and done, this is an agreement that teachers can be proud of and I\u2019m optimistic about the path forward from here.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The government and NSTU have been negotiating since last June. Their last contract expired July 31, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/teachersdealapr1824.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nova Scotia will likely avoid a teachers\u2019 strike as government and union negotiators reached an \u201cagreement in principle\u201d late Wednesday night. The Nova Scotia Teachers Union entered conciliation talks with government negotiators on Monday and Tuesday with a 98 per cent strike mandate. More than 10,000 teachers and educational specialists voted last Thursday to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2078,138,2080,294,2029,399,417,2030,987,2035,2032,2081,98,2079],"class_list":["post-7167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-collective-bargaining","tag-education","tag-negotiations","tag-nova-scotia-government","tag-nova-scotia-teachers-union","tag-nstu","tag-premier-tim-houston","tag-ryan-lutes","tag-strike","tag-strike-vote","tag-teachers","tag-teachers-contract","tag-tim-houston","tag-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7170,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7167\/revisions\/7170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}