The ongoing province-wide CUPE strike has gained even more traction, with the Grande Yellowhead School Division being the latest to join the nine other education support staff groups on strike across Alberta.
According to CUPE, 160 support staffers at the Grande Yellowhead Division, which operates schools in communities like Grande Cache, voted 82 per cent in favour of a strike. Officials say the workers, who are members of CUPE Local 1357, have been without a contract since 2021.
At present, nine other support staff groups are on strike, representing 6,600 workers in Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Calgary, and other communities, with the main issue being wages and education funding.
CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill says low wages are hurting learning efforts in the classroom, saying it’s simply too difficult to hire new staff with so little to offer.
“The average school support worker in Alberta makes $34,500,” he says. “Many workers have gone ten years without a wage increase, Alberta has the lowest per-capita education funding in Canada.”
Gill maintains that the workers “don’t want to strike,” calling the move a hard, but necessary last resort.
“They care about students and don’t want to walk away,” he says. “But doing nothing will hurt students even more.”
The union has yet to provide a 72-hour strike notice, and has not indicated whether they intend to at all.
