A tentative collective agreement for most Manitoba teachers — one imposing a single contract across 37 English school divisions for the first time ever in the province — includes yearly salary increases and other workplace gains.
Last week, the Manitoba Teachers’ Society reached a tentative province-wide deal with the Manitoba School Boards Association which will impact 16,000 public school educators, excluding those in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine or federal bargaining units.
The tentative four-year agreement, obtained by CBC on Thursday, says MTS members employed between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2026 would see their wages increase by a compounded 12.85 per cent.
According to the proposal, teachers would receive annual salary hikes starting at 2.5 per cent for 2022/23, 2.75 per cent in 2023/24, three per cent in 2024/25, and three per cent in 2025/26. A retention adjustment of 1 per cent kicks in in February 2026.
“Teachers should be very happy with this contract,” said Cameron Hauseman, an associate professor of educational administration at the University of Manitoba.
“A lot of the percentage increases year-over-year in terms of salary seem to be big wins for teachers, especially in terms of what we’ve seen across Canada with some of the other contracts that have come out quite recently.”
MTS teachers have been working under a contract that expired June 30, 2022.
Hauseman said he is glad the agreement didn’t make changes to educational classifications for teachers, similar to other jurisdictions, which he said will provide an incentive for people to pursue graduate education and other opportunities to improve their skills and earn more as a result.
The tentative deal would see Manitoba with some of the highest teacher salaries in the country, Hauseman said, adding that Class 7 teachers with a master of education degree could make up to $126,481 per year.
The agreement also proposes to increase teacher preparation times to 210 minutes per school cycle starting in fall 2025, a rise from the current 180 minutes per cycle, according to the proposed agreement.
Teachers who speak and teach an Indigenous language for a minimum of 12 per cent of class time and use the language to provide support to the principal will receive a $500 allowance, the proposal says.
The single contract across divisions would also create more equity in the K-12 system by eliminating idiosyncrasies between them, such as where one might have more preparation time per week or pay teachers a higher wage, Hauseman said.
He also hopes seniority requirements from division to division will relax, allowing teachers to move to different divisions without any financial penalties.
Typically when contracts are harmonized, they equalize the lowest and highest paying divisions — something that “might create a bit of a cost crunch for some divisions,” who may have to find the funds to pay teachers the new provincial average, Hauseman said.
“We’re also talking about an area where it’s become incredibly difficult to recruit teachers. Like we’re dealing with the teacher shortage overall right now, but it’s incredibly pronounced when we get into those specialties like French,” he said.
Hauseman said he hopes the tentative contract could attract more young teachers or people looking to teach as a second profession to the field.
“When we’re talking to young people … and when we ask them, you know, is teaching something you would consider as a career choice moving forward? Often we’ll hear that people think teaching doesn’t pay enough.”
But this contract eliminates that issue, he said.
The “single-tier” bargaining process followed the January 2022 implementation of The Public Schools Amendment Act.
The legislation was passed by Manitoba’s former Progressive Conservative government with the goal of moving to a single bargaining agreement for teachers.
The Manitoba Teachers’ Society was not available to comment on Thursday. In a press release, it said negotiations for the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine are ongoing.
Affected teachers will vote to ratify the deal between Aug. 1 and Aug. 7, according to the agreement.