Edmonton school board, union to head back to bargaining table Thursday

Education support workers strike outside Elder Dr. Francis Whiskeyjack School in southeast Edmonton on Jan. 15, 2025. (Evan Klippenstein)

The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) and the union that represents its support staff currently on strike will meet on Thursday.

EPSB and CUPE Local 3550 confirmed to CTV News Edmonton the school board invited the union to head back to the bargaining table on Thursday.

CUPE 4625, the local that represents Sturgeon Public School Division workers also on strike, has not been invited to negotiate.

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More than 3,000 support staff in Edmonton walked off the job on Jan. 13.

The strike process began last October when CUPE 3550 and Edmonton Public Schools negotiations over better wages stalled. The wage increase offered, 2.75 per cent in the first four years of an eight-year contract, is capped by the Alberta government.

“Our members are not able to sustain life right now,” CUPE Local 3550 president Mandy Lameroux said the day the strike began.

“We’re not asking for a lot. We’re just asking to be able to pay our bills, not have to hold a second job and not have to visit a food bank.”

Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner has accused CUPE of being misleading, saying the union has accepted similar offers for thousands of workers across Alberta doing the same jobs as those in Edmonton.

The superintendents of both divisions have said each school will be affected differently and that parents should keep in touch with their school’s principal.

Roughly 1,000 school support workers in Fort McMurray have been on strike since November.

With files from The Canadian Press