Education support staff with the Parkland School Division officially hit picket lines Tuesday, as a weeks-long — or in some cases, months-long — strike by some education staff continues to grow.
The 400 workers in the school district directly west of Edmonton had been engaged in “work-to-rule” action since Feb. 18, which means workers were asked to not work beyond the hours they are paid for and to not engage in volunteer activities.
Parkland School Division workers are now picketing outside schools in Spruce Grove and Stony Plain.
They now join roughly 6,000 other union members from the Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Calgary, Leduc County, Sturgeon County and Okotoks areas. Some have been on strike since Jan. 13.
Black Gold School Division support workers on strike
Most education assistants make between $31,000 and $43,000 a year — barely above minimum wage. That income has been the big sticking point at the bargaining tables.
Canadian Union of Public Employees Alberta president Rory Gills said many members are forced to work multiple jobs.
“These workers are tired of poverty-level wages. They’re tired of disrespect and they’re tired of an abysmal lack of funding in public education,” Gill said on Monday.
“Alberta has the lowest level of funding in this country, and your average education worker only makes $34,500 a year.”
CUPE Local 5543 vice-president Chrissy Nickel said the workers had hoped the province would step in to resolve the wage dispute.
“The purposeful underfunding of education has left classrooms without the support staff they need, directly impacting students—those with complex needs, those in mainstream classes, and those who require additional assistance to understand the curriculum,” Nickel said in a statement Tuesday.
Nickel said students are being left without crucial support but believes a good education requires well-paid staff.
Meanwhile, directly south of Edmonton, where more than 500 Black Gold School Division support workers went on strike Monday, the two sides returned to the bargaining table on Tuesday.
The division said it was rapidly developing alternative plans to have in-person student learning to the greatest extent possible. Black Gold said its plans are changing as a result of an interlocutory injunction granted by a Court of King’s Bench judge last week.
That order, set to come into effect on Thursday, halts a ministerial order by Alberta’s education minister that gave the Edmonton Public School Board permission to commence at-home learning for select students with complex learning or health conditions when support staff went on strike.
A rally for equitable education for all kids is set to take place Tuesday afternoon outside the Alberta legislature, where the spring session is getting underway.
More to come…
—with files from The Canadian Press