EDSON, ALBERTA – Another group of education support workers could soon join a growing province wide strike.
One hundred and sixty support staff at Grand Yellowhead School Division voted 82% in favour of strike action. The results were counted on Friday. The workers, members of CUPE Local 1357, have been without a contract since 2021. The Division operates schools in the communities of Jasper, Hinton, Edson, Grande Cache and others.
Nine other groups of education support staff, 6,600 workers, are on strike in Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Sturgeon, Parkland, Black Gold, Calgary and Foothills School Division. The main issue is wages and funding of education.
“The average school support worker in Alberta makes $34,500,” said CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill. “Many workers have gone ten years without a wage increase. Alberta has the lowest per-capita education funding in Canada.”
Gill says low wages are hurting learning efforts inside the classroom, noting that it’s difficult to hire new staff at such low wages.
The union has not yet provided 72-hour strike notice, nor has it indicated when it might do that.
“School support workers don’t want to strike. It’s a last resort,” said Gill “They care about students and don’t want to walk away. But doing nothing will hurt students even more.”