With contract bargaining negotiations stalling, late last week, the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation revealed the results of a vote on sanctions.

Ninety per cent of teachers voted, 95 per cent voted for job sanctions.

NDP education critic Matt Love said the vote for sanctions totals means teachers are united despite what he said are attempts by the province to divide them.

A mini-rally in Saskatoon is the latest example of unity, as around 2,000 people rallied outside the office of Saskatchewan Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, Paul Merriman.

“That rally in Saskatoon was anything but mini. Those are educators, family of educators who see how hard they are working. Those are parents whose voice has been ignored by this government on the things that really matter in their children’s education, he said. “A roof over their heads, a teacher in their classrooms that can do what they are there to do, which is to meet the learning needs of the children and youth in their classrooms.”

Love said teachers are standing up for their working conditions and their student’s learning conditions.

“It comes down to the size of our classrooms and the complex needs inside of them. We have overcrowded classrooms across this province,” he said. “In the last ten years, we’ve got over 19,000 more students in Saskatchewan. During that same time, we have 157 fewer teachers in classrooms.”

“We have an 80 per cent reduction in librarians, a reduction in school physiologists and councillors, a reduction in speech-language pathologists,” he continued. “We have fewer supports in schools with 20,000 more students in them; we all celebrate that growth, but if that growth isn’t match with support that our students need, we have fewer teachers there to support them.”

Love added the government isn’t willing to sit down and talk to the teachers about those needs and that an NDP government would reverse the cuts in classrooms.