Workers with the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division may soon join a province-wide strike for higher wages and more education funding.
One hundred and sixty support staff voted 82 per cent in favour of strike action. The results were counted on Friday (Feb. 28).
“The average school support worker in Alberta makes $34,500,” said Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Alberta President Rory Gill in a news release. “Many workers have gone ten years without a wage increase. Alberta has the lowest per-capita education funding in Canada.”
These workers are members of CUPE Local 1357 and have been without a contract since 2021. The division operates schools in Jasper, Hinton, Edson, Grande Cache and other communities.
Nine other groups of education support staff, a total of 6,600 workers, are on strike in Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Sturgeon, Parkland, Black Gold, Calgary and Foothills School Division.
According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the main issue is wages and funding of education. Gill noted low wages made it difficult to hire new staff and hurt learning efforts inside the classroom.
“School support workers don’t want to strike. It’s a last resort,” Gill said. “They care about students and don’t want to walk away. But doing nothing will hurt students even more.”
The union has not yet provided a 72-hour strike notice or indicated when it might do that.
Dennis Parsons, interim superintendent of the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division, said in a written update that the division had presented a settlement offer to the CUPE Local 1357 bargaining committee on Feb. 28.
The offer included a long-term contract through to Aug. 31, 2028, that recognizes the Alberta government’s 2025 budget commitment to school boards with the ability to offer a 26.7 per cent market-based increase to all education assistants and between 15.4 to 21.1 per cent market-based increases for all other employees.
The offer also included a grid restructure allowing employees on the four-step grid to reach the top step six years earlier and all additional enhancements contained in a mediator’s earlier recommendation.
Parsons added they received a counter proposal on Friday (Feb. 28) indicating an openness to discuss a contract through to August 31, 2028, but the CUPE was not prepared to provide specific details. The division has asked them for dates to continue negotiations.
“The Division acknowledges the importance of a transparent and collaborative bargaining process,” Parsons said. “We encourage employees to remain informed about the latest developments before determining next steps.”
The division will be posting updates on its website.
