The first volley in the contract dispute between our province's 12,000 teachers, Saskatchewan Education and school trustees was fired on Friday, when teachers put a work-to-rule job action in place.

Under the terms of the job action outlined by the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF), there are no extra-curricular services provided by teachers, including noon-hour supervision or any school or board-sponsored activities outside of the 9-3:30 school day.

In addition, the STF has warned they will give notice of any further withdrawal of services (including, presumably, strike action) by 11 a.m. the day prior to the action taking place.

While the job action is designed to put pressure on the government and trustee bargaining committee to get an agreement in the contract negotiations, the ones who are paying the ultimate price are the innocent ones: the students from kindergarten to Grade 12, and their families.

The hours of practice and preparation that students have spent outside of school hours to take part in everything from drama and student council to extra-curricular sports teams, such as football and volleyball, went down the tubes as every game and practice had to be cancelled due to the job action.

Will teachers erode what public sympathy they might otherwise have had by taking away these activities, along with anything else that takes place outside of school hours? Are the teachers' demands fair?

Judging by the high level of support given by the teachers earlier this year to commence job action (a vote of 91 per cent), they are fully behind this action with few exceptions.

The basic issue of dispute are the wage levels; the teachers rejected an offer of an increase of 2.5 per cent per year over two years, and are instead asking for 5.1 per cent per year over three years.

Our teachers should be commended that there has never been a teachers' strike in this province, but that record may soon fall if this job action doesn't have the desired effect of helping the two sides come to a contract agreement.

The argument could be made that it is far more preferable to lose an activity like a volleyball tournament or two rather than have students miss days of instruction in the classroom, but the unfortunate fact is that in both cases it is the students who are held hostage to the teachers' demands.

Clearly both sides of this dispute will have to compromise their position, although the government has shown a historical reluctance to bow to anyone's demands. The NDP administration has even committed the unthinkable in regards to other unions, namely legislating them back to work and ordering a settlement in their contracts rather than bargaining one.

In the case of our students, who are the future generation of leaders and citizens, this kind of strength may very well be called for from our government to ensure the children will not suffer - but this is certainly not the ideal. The contract needs to be settled by talks, not through strong-arm tactics on either side. - G.N.