Nova Scotia Teachers Union to hold strike vote April 11

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union is set to hold a strike vote on April 11.

In a news release on Wednesday evening, the union — which represents nearly 10,000 public school teachers and specialists — said the move comes after 10 months of negotiations.

"We have many issues in our public schools and they're not willing or don't seem to be willing to address any of them," said NSTU president Ryan Lutes in an interview with CBC News on Wednesday.

The union says challenges facing schools include escalating levels of violence, a shortage of teachers and substitute teachers and "rapidly declining classroom conditions."

Lutes said 84 per cent of the teachers in the union have contemplated leaving the profession over the last five years. He said vulnerable students are losing out on services they need while schools face a mental health crisis and the province is not willing to listen to concerns.

"My message to parents is this isn't a step that we take lightly. We recognize what this means. But to not do this would mean that teachers are OK with conditions that kids don't deserve," Lutes said.

Nova Scotia's Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Becky Druhan said there are a few more negotiating dates coming up before the strike vote and she's hopeful an agreement can be reached. 

She said 10 months of bargaining "hasn't been an unusual amount of time." 

Druhan also said the government is listening.

"I've, on an unprecedented basis, worked and spoken directly with teachers and educators across the province and we're taking actions specifically in response to the issues they've raised, the ideas and the insights they have," Druhan told CBC News.

Druhan said a recently launched pilot program called Ideas for Education is reaching out directly to teachers to get their suggestions for improving achievement and overall student well being. It aims to address issues like complex classrooms, safety in schools, literacy and other issues educators have raised.

"So we've heard from teachers across the province with ideas about pilots to implement in classrooms and those are underway across the province," Druhan said. "In addition to that, I have spoken with thousands of educators in over 80 meetings now and we've taken the insights and the thoughts that they have and we're acting directly on them as well."