The Alberta region of the Canadian Union of Public Employees recently posted on their website that two sets of education support workers in east central Alberta have voted to go on strike.
These are the second and third sets of workers to announce their strike vote results this week, following in the footsteps of workers employed by the Grande Yellowhead School Division.
Of these two new groups, 250 workers are employed by the Buffalo Trail Public Schools and are represented by Local 1606 of CUPE. The rest are in the East Central Catholic School Division and represented by Local 5352.
Based out of Wainwright, Buffalo Trails Public Schools oversees schools in Amisk, Chavin, Dewberry, Edgerton, Hughenden, Innisfree, Irma, Kitscoty, Mannville, Marwayne, Minburn, Paradise Valley, Provost, Vermillion, and, of course, Wainwright.
East Central is also based out of Wainwright, and they operate Catholic schools in Castor, Provost, Stettler, Vermillion, and Wainwright.
In both cases, workers have been without a new contract since last August, over 6 months ago. Also, in both case, their contracts were ratified with only a few months left before the expiry date.
Buffalo Trial workers ratified their collective agreement in November 2023, about 9 months before it expired. They include educational assistants, library workers, administrative assistants, transportation workers, maintenance workers, and IT workers.
East Central workers were less lucky, ratifying theirs only last March, 5 months before the expiry date. These workers are technicians, administrative assistants, library workers, educational assistants, custodians, and dietary aides.
Workers in both school divisions have had pretty crappy wage increases over the last little while, according to the province’s collective agreement wages tables.
| East Central | Buffalo Trail | |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 0.00% | 30¢ |
| 2019 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2021 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2022 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2023 | 1.25% | $3.00 |
| 2024 | 1.50% | 1.50% |
That’s 6 years in a row of wage freezes in a row for East Central workers and 5 years of freezes for Buffalo Trail workers.
East Central educational support workers have seen only a 2.75% combined wage increase since 2016, and while the Buffalo Trail workers were better off, their combined increase still came in at under 6% (the 2023 market adjustment increase affected workers differently, on a percentage bases, depending on their position).
In December 2016, the consumer price index in Alberta sat at 134.9. By the time December 2024 rolled around, 8 years later, it had jumped 34.8 points to 169.7. That’s an increase of 25.8%.
Given that inflation was nearly 26% during the period covered in the table above, the tiny wage increases these workers received means they ended up with a cut to real wages of 23.05% for East Central workers and 19.8% for Buffalo Trail worker, and that’s if we round up their combined increase to 6%.
What kind of market increase still leaves you basically 20% behind inflation?
Is it any wonder these workers have voted to strike? They’re tired of not being able to support themselves and their families as inflation skyrockets.
To be clear, these strike votes don’t mean that these workers are on strike. Like their fellow workers in the Grande Yellowhead School Division, these workers are saying that they’re willing to go on strike if it comes down to it.
They’ve told their bargaining committee to go back to the negotiating table and tell the school boards that they’re ready to strike if they don’t come back with better offers than what they’ve given so far.
If the school boards refuse to offer fair wages for these workers, they may end up joining over 6,500 of their fellow workers on the picket line soon.
Alberta has the largest number of public sector workplaces on strike right now than at any other time in the last 25 years.
