More than 4,000 Edmonton public school workers could take strike votes next week

About 4,150 Edmonton public school support workers are preparing to take strike votes after more than four years without current collective agreements.

Low wages that have stagnated in times of inflation, difficult working conditions and trouble agreeing on other concessions has created a "crisis" for school workers across the province, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Alberta president Rory Gill said in an interview on Friday. 

"It's gone beyond a crisis toward a catastrophe," Gill said. "People can't support themselves. It's the norm to have a second job, and many people have a third and some have a fourth to make ends meet."

Workers are now in a 14-day cooling off period after formal mediation was unsuccessful. They include around 3,200 school support workers in CUPE local 3550 and about 950 custodians in CUPE local 474.

Mediation attempts concluded last week, local union presidents said. The locals will be in a position to ask the labour relations board for permission to hold strike votes next week. October 17 and 20 are earmarked as potential voting days, they said.

Should a union local vote in favour of a strike, it means they can take job action 72 hours after notifying the school board they plan to withdraw some or all of their services.

The last collective agreements expired on Aug. 31, 2020. Gill said it is extremely unusual for employees to be without an updated contract for so long, and poor for morale.

Barry Benoit, president of the custodians' union local, said workers started by asking for a $2-an-hour yearly raise for four consecutive years. They have scaled back their request to a $2-an-hour raise in each of the last two years of the contract.

If the parties are to reach an agreement, pay raises would be retroactive, and the union locals would have to begin bargaining right away for the next contract.

"It went from strange to downright weird that we could potentially come to an agreement that would expire before the ink is dry," Benoit said in an interview Friday.

Benoit said the government requires the school board to offer no raises for 2020-21 and 2021-22, a 1.25 per cent raise in 2022-23 and a 1.5 per cent raise in 2023-24.

He said the parties are also at an impasse over non-monetary issues, such as professional development and the grievance process.

In a statement Friday, Edmonton Public Schools's communication director, Carrie Rosa, said the division is still working hard to reach an agreement with the union locals.

"While we do not comment about ongoing negotiations, we remain committed to working collaboratively with both CUPE 3550 and 474 to reach an agreement," she said. 

Average educational assistant pay around $27,000

Educational assistants, library technicians and administrative assistants are among the support workers contemplating job action.

CUPE local 3550 president Mandy Lamoureux said wages have risen by about a dollar an hour in the last 12 years, during which time Alberta's consumer price index — a measure of the cost of living — rose 34 per cent.

Educational assistants, who work 35 hours a week, 10 months a year, earn an average of $27,000 a year, she said.

"Where this job was sustainable 10 years ago … you cannot survive on this income now," she said on Thursday.

Members are not only working multiple jobs, they're visiting food banks, struggling to pay their bills, and can't afford to put their children in extracurricular activities, she said.

"A lot of our members say they can't afford to strike, but they can't afford not to," she said.

Educational support workers in Fort McMurray's public and Catholic schools last month overwhelmingly voted in favour of a strike. On Sept. 17, the provincial government ordered the parties to head to the dispute inquiry board, which will try to reach a settlement within 30 days. If it is unsuccessful, the union can give 72 hours of strike notice to the school boards.

Edmonton AM5:25No strike for educational support workers in Fort McMurray

More than 1,000 educational support workers in Fort McMurray schools were prepared to be on the picket line today. Last night, the province issued a notice for labour negotiations to continue, while workers remain on the job. Lynn Fleet is the president of CUPE 2545.

It's a step Gill says threatens the constitutional right to strike.

Hes said the provincial government underfunding school boards and setting rigid targets on wages employers can offer is the cause of the disputes.

Justin Brattinga, press secretary to Alberta's finance minister, said in a statement that CUPE negotiates directly with school boards.

"The Government of Alberta is not involved," he said.

The province uses a formula to determine how much money it transfers to school boards. Boards with growing enrolment have been particularly critical of the formula, saying it fails to provide enough money to keep pace with the rapid enrolment growth happening in some urban and suburban divisions.