New Manitoba teachers' contract will help bridge salary gap between rural, city school divisions: union

The president of the union representing Manitoba'steachers says a new collective agreement, promising wage increases exceeding12 per cent overfour years, will help level the playing field for public-school teachersacross the province.

Manitoba Teachers' Society president Nathan Martindalesaid the first provincewide bargaining agreement will elevate wages so all teachershave a consistent and higher base of pay, no matter where they work.

"In terms of salaries, our premise was toraise everyone up and first of all toget them all on the firstfloor and then take the elevator up to higher floors" in future negotiations, Martindale said.

The Manitoba Teachers' Society and Manitoba School Boards Association celebrated the new collective agreement by hosting a signing ceremony Tuesday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

The contract was approved in avote earlier this summer,with 95 per cent of teachers who cast ballots voting in favour of it. The turnout rate was around 70 per cent.

The deal, which appliesa single contract across all 37 English-language school divisions in the province, will raise general wages by a compounded 12.85 per cent over the duration of the four-year contract, which runs from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2026.

Wage adjustment in 2026

The annual salary hikes are 2.5 per cent, 2.75 per cent, three per cent and three per cent, with an additional one per cent retention adjustment in the final year of the contract.

The standardized wage scale will take effectby the 2026-27 academic year.

Before the new contract, the difference between school divisions in terms of starting gross salaries for teachers with five years of post-secondary schoolingwas as high as $5,500. The lowest-paying divisions are predominatelyin rural Manitoba.

Reducing the gap will help rural divisions recruit and retain staff, Martindalesaid.

"If divisions have the same rate of pay across the province, then if you're a teacher in a small rural division, for example, you won't be attracted to move to a metro division here in Winnipeg for a higher rate of pay."

He expects teacher bargaining units in other provinces will look at the Manitoba contract as a model to emulate. The province's teachers will be among the highest-paid in the country, with those withadvanced degreesmaking up to $126,000 per year.

Martindalesaid he's also encouragedby some of the non-monetary gains the union made in the contract.

For example, the new agreement enshrines preparationtime for all teachers. The standard for divisions wasaround 180 minutes of prep timeper school cycle (usually a six-day rotation), but that will increase to 210 minutes per cycleby fall 2025.

"There's folks out there in rural divisions that didn't have a whole lot and now they're going to have more, and that's a good thing," he said.

The agreement alsoestablishesa consistent5.5-hour per day limit for teacher instructional time.

The contractincludesadditional pay allowances for northern regions and Indigenous language teaching, paid leave during inclement weather, and improved leave options, including up to three days for Indigenous ceremonial, cultural and spiritual observance leave.

Substitute rates will also be adjusted, withgeographical regionsestablished to standardize rates across the province.

'Tough conversations' ahead: boards association

Manitoba Schools Boards Association president Sandy Nemeth said divisionsbudgeted this year under the assumption they would pay out the first year of a settlement, including retroactive pay.

She said the potential impact on property taxes going forward depends on the provincial government. The NDP government has promised a new education funding model in time forthe 2025-26 school year.

"It's the years ahead of us that I think there'sgoing to be some tough conversations and maybe somehard decisions that have to be made," Nemeth said.

The former Progressive Conservative government passed a law in 2022 to harmonize all English-language teacher contracts into a single provincewide agreement.

Negotiations are ongoing for educators in the French-language Franco-Manitoban School Divisionand MTS's federal bargaining units.