More than 200 Edmonton educational staff gathered at the Alberta legislature grounds Saturday rallying for wage increases and suitable working conditions.
Contract negotiations are underway for CUPE 3550, the union representing Edmonton’s educational assistants, administration staff and librarians.
Leeanne Cole-Fandrich has been an educational assistant with Edmonton Public Schools for 23 years. She says it’s been challenging for her to support students when classrooms are overcrowded and resources are scarce.
“We’re trying to keep these kids focused and on task and doing what they can to their ability but there’s not enough of us,” she said. “We run all over the school, do many different jobs and I don’t think people who aren’t in education really understand what we do.”
Cole-Fandrich says she frequently has to skip breaks and is pulled in multiple directions to support students in three or four different classrooms at once.
She believes she’s severely underpaid for her line of work. She says many of her colleagues are often working a second or third job to pay for basic necessities.
“I could work construction (for better pay). I work construction in the summer. I mean, half of us have two jobs during the school year,” she said.
The president of CUPE 3550 Mandy Lamoureux says while salaries vary, the average annual pay for many of her members sits at around $27,000.
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Lamoureux says the province’s mandated 2.75 per cent wage increase is not enough with inflationary pressures.
“We’re worth more than that. They’ve mandated at 2.75 per cent with wage increase, which totals approximately 70 cents, and we’re worth more than that,” Lamoureux said.
“The minimum wage has gone up by $4.40 and we haven’t even kept up with that. We should have a liveable wage. We should be able to work at one job and be able to afford all the necessities to live in Edmonton,” she added.
The union fears the province may block their action to strike following intervention earlier this week with CUPE 2545 workers in Fort McMurray schools.
Educational assistants, librarians and other support staff at public and catholic school divisions served notice on Sept. 17 to begin strike action. The Alberta government intervened and appointed them to two dispute inquiry boards before the strike started. If agreements can’t be reached the inquiry boards will make recommendations on a settlement.
“I would love the government to stop impeding on our rights to bargain. They have no business being at our bargaining table and mandating 2.75. Let us negotiate with our school board the way we deserve to negotiate with our school board,” Lamoureux said.
In a televised address Tuesday night, Premier Danielle Smith said the Alberta government will be quadrupling the amount of capital money going towards K-12 school construction over the next three years via a new program called the School Construction Accelerator Program.
The province says they’ll need to open 200,000 new student spaces in the next seven years to keep up with enrolment pressure. Their goal is to open the first 50,000 spaces by the 2026-2027 school year.
“We estimate that (enrollment) is increasing at about 33,000 students per year – that is equivalent to roughly 35 new schools each year,” Smith said in her address.
The union questions the implementation of that project.
“We think it’s wonderful they’re going to build new school but at the same time, we’re a little nervous. How are you going to staff them if you can’t staff the ones we have now?” Lamoureux said.
An education spokesperson with the Ministry of Education responded to CUPE’s concerns with the following statement:
“Our government is making record investments into education, including billions to address enrollment growth and classroom complexity by hiring more than 3,000 new teachers, EAs and other educational support staff and to support students with specialized learning needs.
“To be clear, the Government of Alberta does not bargain with CUPE, and your assertion that the government does not care for the employees employed by the province is completely inaccurate. We encourage both the union and the school divisions to work constructively with the mediator towards agreements to prevent disruptions to education and childcare in Fort McMurray,” the statement said.
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