More Alberta education workers set to strike Monday
Posted Feb 21, 2025 7:00 am.
Last Updated Feb 22, 2025 10:03 am.
Two more groups of Alberta education workers have served a 72-hour strike notice, teeing up job action for Monday.
CUPE says 570 support staff at Black Gold School Division, south of Edmonton, and 300 support staff at Foothills School Division, south of Calgary, have served their notices as of Thursday evening.
The union adds that both groups are expected to hit the picket lines after the weekend.
Foothills and Black Gold school division employees will join 800 support workers at the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) and 350 workers from the Calgary Catholic School Division, who served notices earlier this week.
The job action comes after members voted overwhelmingly in favour earlier this month.
These groups join 4,000 workers in Edmonton, Fort McMurray, and the Sturgeon School Division who are already on strike. An additional 400 employees of Parkland School Division started work to rule on Tuesday.
According to CUPE, the strikes come out of desperation for higher pay; the average school support worker in Alberta makes around $34,500 annually.
“We went too long without a meaningful wage increase, during periods of record inflation,” said president Rory Gill. “Many staff work multiple jobs and some rely upon the food bank. People who are responsible for our children’s education deserve better.”
He adds the employees don’t want to leave their students, but they know doing nothing will only make the situation worse.
“I have never seen determination, strength, resilience, solidarity like I have on these picket lines. So many of our members have told me, ‘Rory we can’t afford to do this. But we can’t afford not to do this,” said Gill.
“They’ve been bargaining in good faith but they keep getting the same rehashed offers, over and over again, woefully low wages. We are ready, right now, to make a deal. It’s the provincial government that is the block to this deal. They will not fund properly.”
Watch: Alberta school strikes growing, province loses lawsuit
Gill says the province has the lowest per-capita education funding in the country and “mandates” from Alberta’s government restrict the wages that school divisions can offer.
“We need the province to step up and help,” said Gill. “They brought us to this point, they need to take responsibility.”
CityNews spoke to Colleen Sheremeta, who is a striking education assistant who is also a mom to a son with autism. He’s still going to school, but she worries, he is not getting the help he needs.
“He is struggling and I find that it does put the pressure back on the home to be following up with ‘what is he missing?’ and possibly getting a tutor down the line,” explained Sheremeta.
On Thursday, a provincial judge blocked an order by the education minister, that was allowing special needs kids to be kept at home because many no longer have an EA to work with them at school.
“It was blatantly, on its face discriminatory. So it was an affront to their dignity in and of itself,” said Orlagh O’Kelly, the lawyer for parents.
Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has until Thursday to come up with a plan that the court finds does not discriminate against students with disabilities.
His office would only say Friday he is reviewing the judge’s decision, but the province has long claimed its school funding is enough and that it’s up to school boards to sign fair deals with workers.
-With files from Sean Amato
