New Brunswick teachers reach tentative agreement with the province

After two years, a tentative collective agreement has been reached between the government and union that represents teachers in the province.

"We have been at the bargaining table since last June,” said Connie Keating, president of the New Brunswick Teachers Association.

“We would have exchanged packages on the last day of June I believe, and we have been sitting at the table since September,” Keating said.

“We reached a point in February where things were not progressing and what happened from there is we went to the conciliation board phase,” she said.

The tentative agreement covers more than 7,800 employees in the public school system whose most recent collective agreement expired in February 2021.

They came to the tentative deal late yesterday when the federation

"We welcomed our federation board of directors to the building, we went through the proposal in detail,” Keating said.

“They asked a lot of questions and towards the end of the day they asked to take it to a vote and decided,” the NBTA president said.

“They were willing to let this stand as a tentative agreement for our members and would recommend it as so,” she said.

Parents are happy that the likeliness of a teacher strike has diminished.

"After everything that's gone on with the pandemic and everything I think the teachers shouldn't strike,” said parent Troy Brewer.

“I mean I'm sure that there's reasons that they're able to strike but children were out of school way too long in the last three to four years,” Brewer said.

In May, the federation declared a 100-day countdown toward Aug. 28 as a deadline for deciding on a strike if a tentative agreement was reached.

“Ultimately, I am there to support the teachers if they needed to strike to make their point I would 100% stand behind that,” said Angela Hamill, a parent of two school age children.

“I'm glad they've reached a tentative agreement but I would be comfortable with them striking because they're the future of our children,” Hamill said.

“Now if only they could come to their senses on policy 713,” she said.

The provincial government and the federation have agreed to withhold details until a ratification vote is held, which will likely be mid-September.

“As a government, we deeply value the effort teachers put into their work each day,” said Finance Minister Ernie Steeves in a statement.

“That is why we are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement and look forward to having it ratified,” he added.

"From this point we will take this tentative agreement out to our members when they return to school at the end of August,” Keating said.

“They will have an opportunity to attend information sessions, they will get to go through it in detail, ask their questions, and then they will be asked to vote on ratifying this agreement in early September,” she said.

A spokesperson for government says they will not be commenting on the agreement until it is ratified. 

For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.