The president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union say she’s expecting a strong mandate today from a strike vote being held across the province.
Liette Doucet says the options that could come from a positive strike vote include a regular strike and various work-to-rule or rotating strike tactics.
She says the teachers have reached a point where they’re willing to fight the province’s statement that it can’t afford wage or other monetary increases as a result of the contract.
READ MORE: N.S. teachers agree to talk working conditions away from negotiating table
Doucet says teachers are looking for a “fair wage increase,” and for the government to provide funding that will improve working conditions.
“The government has to realize that to make changes in the education system, change costs money,” she said.
The vote by approximately 9,300 teachers comes in the wake of the union members soundly rejecting a second tentative deal with the province earlier this month.
Members of the union decisively voted down a proposed agreement on Oct. 4, after rejecting the first tentative agreement last November.
The Liberal government has said it has to hold the line on public sector wage agreements due to the province’s deepening debt, and has said it has increased investment in education since taking office.
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READ MORE: Nova Scotia Teachers Union to hold strike vote today
Education Minister Karen Casey indicated two weeks ago that the province plans to wait for the results of the vote before determining its next steps.
However, the province has passed Bill 148, which would freeze public sector wage salaries for the first two years, provide a one per cent increase in the third year, a 1.5 per cent increase at the start of the fourth year and a 0.5 per cent increase on the final day of the four year.
The bill has yet to be proclaimed, but union leaders have described it as being like “a gun to the head” when it comes to negotiations.
The union has said the results of the strike vote are expected at about 8:45 p.m.
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