Nearly 900 More Alberta Education Support Workers Hit Bargaining Impasses

CUPE education workers with Local 3484 (Black Gold School Division) and Local 5543 (Parkland School Division) have exhausted efforts to come to an agreement with employers.

EDMONTON, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly 900 education support workers with two CUPE locals have exhausted efforts to come to a fair and reasonable agreement at the bargaining table and could join the more than 4,000 other education support workers already on strike.

“Education support workers love their students, and they love their jobs but are simply finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet,” said Wendy Harman, President of Local 5543, representing over 430 education support workers at Parkland School Division.

“Our bargaining team tried to get a fair deal with the Parkland School Division, but the main sticking point is wages. Wages are so low that vacant positions go unfilled, so the employer sometimes contracts out work by using teachers as replacements,” says Harman, noting that similar issues have caused other education support workers to strike.

“These are tough jobs, but also incredibly fulfilling. The government must step up and put more funding on the table otherwise the job action we’re seeing in other parts of the province will spread.”

Additionally, nearly 500 education support workers with CUPE Local 3484 also hit a bargaining-table impasse with their employer, Black Gold School Division. Again, the main obstacle to an agreement is wages.

“The wage offer from the employer is simply too low. Many education support workers have to work multiple jobs,” says Local 3484 President Denise Jakubowski. “Alberta cost-of-living increases over the last few years means workers are financially stretched thin to the point where they can’t afford to do the important work of helping students.”

“The main issue facing education support workers in my Local is the same faced by education support workers across Alberta and that’s wages,” says Jakubowski. “The provincial government could solve this easily. Funding for Alberta students is the lowest in Canada. All it would take is a word from Premier Smith to properly fund public education and the main reason for job action would vanish.”

Both locals are committed to a collective agreement that properly funds public education and puts students first.

:clc/cope491