More than 1,100 education support workers in Calgary walked off the job Monday morning, joining thousands of their colleagues across Alberta who are already on the picket line.
The striking workers include custodial and maintenance workers, facility operators, heavy duty mechanics, locksmiths and ground maintenance staff from the Calgary Board of Education, Calgary Catholic School District and Foothills School Division.
They join about 4,000 education support workers from the Edmonton area, Fort McMurray and Sturgeon County, who have already been on strike for more than a month.
Hundreds of the unionized employees, who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, gathered outside the McDougall Centre in Calgary early Monday morning in a show of solidarity.
CUPE Alberta President, Rory Gill, said the main item in dispute is wages, which he claims are not enough to live on, forcing many members to work multiple jobs.
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“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,” said Gill.
“Alberta has the lowest level of funding in this country, and your average education worker only makes $34,500 a year.”
“Many of us are working two to three jobs. That is not good,” said Henry Hernandez, CUPE local president.
“We’ve been waiting for this for too long — for nine years we haven’t had a decent wage increase.”
As the job action continues, CUPE also plans to set up picket lines at a couple of schools within each school division.
Both the CBE and CSSD have said they are committed to negotiating in good faith and while schools will remain open, there will be some impact on before and after-school activities that will need to be wrapped up by 6 p.m., or be relocated or cancelled.
Public rentals of school facilities by community groups are also being cancelled.
Outside of Calgary, another combined 900 support staff from the Foothills School Division and the Black Gold School Division, directly adjacent to Edmonton, also went on strike Monday morning.
The CUPE members recently voted 94 per cent in favour of strike action.
To the west of Edmonton at the Parkland School Division, about 400 members of CUPE Local 5543 have been engaged in ‘work-to-rule’ activities since Feb. 18. That means workers are asked to not work beyond the hours they are paid for and to not engage in volunteer activities.
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