More than 1,000 Fort McMurray school support workers to strike on Tuesday

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Public and Catholic school support workers in Fort McMurray are slated to walk off the job Tuesday morning after holding rotating strikes since Nov. 13.

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CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill says the full strike is due to “the fact the provincial government has not acted to address the poor wages” of school support workers.

“The wages of these workers haven’t improved in over a decade,” said Gill in a news release on Sunday.

“They need a substantial increase to make up the ground lost to inflation.

CUPE Locals 2545 and 2559 represent more than 1,000 staff, including librarians, maintenance workers and educational assistants.

Gill believes if the province doesn’t act soon, workers at other school districts will follow.

In September, members of both unions voted in favour of striking, but one day before they could start job action, the province stepped in and appointed a disputes inquiry board (DIB) to help the two sides reach an agreement.

“We understand the impact this will have on students, especially special needs students,” Gill said of the strike.

“However, students are being negatively affected by high turnover of staff. A good education requires well-paid, satisfied support staff.”

Fort McMurray Public School Division’s early childhood development program will be suspended until after the strike, according to its website on Sunday.

“We remain dedicated to negotiating an agreement that preserves and upholds the current essential educational supports and services for students, and ensures that no reductions are necessary,” the division said in a statement.

Due to the strike, Fort McMurray Catholic Schools' early entry program will be closed. The division also posted to its website saying that it recognizes the right of their support staff to engage in legal work action.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says a third-party mediator agrees the wage increases offered are appropriate for this round of bargaining and that it seems “unreasonable that the union is demanding more.”

He added the support workers are already in the top 10 per cent of earners in their professions in Alberta and “exceed the western Canadian average.”

“This dispute is for the past round of bargaining, and 60 of 67 collective agreements for education support workers throughout the province have already settled,” Nicolaides said in a statement on Monday to CTV News Edmonton.

Nicolaides is hopeful the union will put “students and families first” by going back to the bargaining table to find a deal that’s fair and reasonable.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brittany Ekelund