Nunavik teachers set for 17-day strike this month
Job action set for later in May as negotiations fail to advance
All Nunavik schools are set for a picket line from May 13 to May 30 as the union representing teachers and staff calls for a strike amid slow negotiations. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)
Nunavik teachers and education professionals are planning a 17-day strike in May as negotiations toward a new collective agreement continue into their 30th month.
The strike is set for May 13 to May 30.
“I think it just goes to show how fed up our members are,” said Larry Imbeault, president of the Association of Employees of Northern Quebec, in a French phone interview.
“Things are not moving, so we need to make things move.”
Association members gave the union the mandate to strike this week, in a motion passed by the executive committee.
The union has been working toward a new agreement with Kativik Ilisinariliniq, the regional school board, and the Quebec government since October 31, 2022. The old collective agreement expired in May 2023 and affects about 450 teachers and support workers.
The union has expressed interest in an unlimited general strike, but also does not want to jeopardize the staff’s ability to go down south for the summer.
To strike this late into the school year was intentional — while the union says education is its priority, it also wants a new agreement in place before the next school year so current staff can be retained and new staff can be recruited.
“We believe that at this time is where the most pressure will be put on the school board,” Imbeault said.
He added he hopes the union and school board won’t remain in negotiations by the beginning of the next school year, because at that point “we won’t have a choice to use an unlimited general strike.”
“If the school board doesn’t budge, we maintain our position,” he said.
This is the second strike for the union this year; the first one lasted four days in January.
Kativik Ilisinariliniq spokesperson Jade Bernier declined to comment on the situation for now.
The union and school board are set to meet May 9 before Quebec’s Administrative Labor Tribunal in Montreal regarding a complaint the union filed in March, alleging bad faith negotiations on the board’s part.
HOW CAN THIS SUPPOSEDLY INUIT OPERATED ORGANIZATION BE SO SELFISH WHEN THEY KNOW THAT THE SECONDARY STUDENTS HAS THEIR EXAMS DURING THIS TIME OF THE MONTH. WE WANT OUR SECONDARY ENGLISH AND FRENCH CHILDREN TO GRADUATE AND RECEIVE THEIR DIPLOMAS. SELFISH SELFISH SELFISH. ONCE AGAINA GOOD SIGN OF COLONIALISM!
I’ve learned more from books, the internet and society than a KSB education could ever offer. I graduated 20 years ago. Still no improvement at Kativik. Our teachers didn’t teach us at KSB and now that they’re KI and nothing has changed, we really have to look at what they’re spending their budgets on(For example of money spent to no effectiveness such as how they changed their name, teachers ed meetings on teachers that won’t even be there, low grade material for colourful Lego block effect on the schools.. etc).
i agree, when i completed Sec 5 back in 1997, we had no way of knowing that we have had so many different avenues to futher education, ( different fields, such as mech training down south, not just vocational ed in inukjuak )
What?
Using the youth to leverage their conditions, sounds baby mama to me 🤑 Over paid babysitters who lower the standards for minimal success, and harsh reality to the “graduate” with aspirations of CEGEP and university. Adios
What success? A KI/KSB education? Aspirations are just aspirations when you hit college and you don’t even know what homework is.
Colonialism at its best… planning on taking over nunavik in a few decades we all can see, might as well teach our children Inuktitut at home schooling, I hope most of parents won’t let their children stay on screen iPhone the whole strike,
They are not even teaching them good quality life lessons anyway so why on strike!? Mr. Imbeault and all the rest of union representatives you are ruining our future and thanks a lot, we will fight back colonialism as we been and always will.
I would say fire them all whining teachers and start teach Inuktitut instead how about that?
‘Colonialism’ – to quote the most influential philosopher of the 80s = “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”
All children homeschooled and you would find people here complaining that their children aren’t attending it looking for someone to blame.
Education professionals have a tentative agreement, they are not striking.
2 years to negociate an agreement is way too long. The serious teachers left a long time ago because KSB is a very unserious organization.
The teachers left are not doing great. Not many with experience and it’s impossible to teach when there is no regular attendance.
And……. it’s never been easier to get a teaching job!!
If you have a BEd and a clean Crim Check, you can work almost anywhere in the south. Very few teachers “need” to start their careers in the north anymore. In fact, I would argue long term, they are better off moving where they want to live and breaking in. Northern experience does not help you get your foot in the door like it used to.
I wonder of there are still as many unqualified teachers as in the past. And is it ethical for non qualified teachers to have a say in important negociations in the field of educationfor Nunavik. More spécifically, I wonder if non qualified teachers are full fledged members of the teacher union and have equal vote when it comes to these important matters? Because lets face it, why should they? They aren’t Even real teachers. How can we expect them to make décisions bases on éducation rather than solely on themselves.