Job action involving more than 4,000 school support workers is on track to grow into Calgary and other areas of Alberta after five union locals voted to strike.
Staff in Edmonton, Sturgeon County and Fort McMurray have been picketing for close to a month over a wage dispute with their employers.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees says close to 2,500 workers from five union locals elsewhere in the province have voted in favour of a strike.
Those workers are from the Calgary public and Catholic school boards, as well as the Foothills division just south of the city and the Black Gold and Parkland divisions near Edmonton.
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Union officials say they will give divisions and the public 72 hours’ notice before engaging in job action.
CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill says the strong strike mandate is a sign that the government has to improve education funding in the upcoming budget.
“We’ve been telling the government that if they don’t address the funding problems in our classrooms, the strikes will expand,” Gill said in a statement.
“They did not address the funding problems, and now the strikes will expand.”
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