Grande Yellowhead ed workers vote 82% to strike

Yesterday, the Alberta region of the Canadian Union of Public Employees published an update on their website regarding more potential strike action on the horizon.

CUPE represents education support workers in several school districts throughout Alberta. Since late last year, over 6,600 such workers have gone on strike in the Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Sturgeon, Parkland, Black Gold, Calgary, and Foothills school divisions.

According to the website update, 160 education support staff employed by the Grand Yellowhead Public School Division and belonging to CUPE Local 1357 participated in a strike vote last Friday.

The Grand Yellowhead Public School Division oversees the operation of schools in communities west of Edmonton, such as Edson, Evansburg, Fulham, Grande Cache, Hinton, Jasper, Niton Junction, and Wildwood.

Grande Yellowhead didn’t take too kindly to this development.

In a statement published to the school division’s website the day before the vote, Dennis Parsons, the interim superintendent and CEO of the school division, tried to foster animosity between local workers and the broader CUPE organization, blaming the decision to hold the strike vote on “CUPE National”.

GYPSD is concerned with CUPE National’s decision to hold the strike vote on the same day when the parties are supposed to be working towards an agreement. We question CUPE National’s genuine interest in getting a deal. We question why CUPE National would want employees voting without knowing the outcomes of the discussions that may occur during this day of mediation.

While they framed the larger group as the enemy, they tried to express sympathy for their “commitment” to bargain with local workers.

GYPSD remains committed to reaching an agreement with CUPE Local 1357. We appreciate our CUPE Local employees and the support they provide our students which ultimately forms part of the safe, secure, welcoming and caring learning and working environment that is our number one priority.

However, this development shouldn’t have come as a surprise, since the workers voted democratically to reject a tentative agreement back in January.

That agreement, which had been mediated, promised a 2.75% wage increase effective to 1 February 2024, which the school division claimed was “in-line with the 2.75% general wage increase trend seen in over 99% of the broader public sector agreements for the same time period”.

The problem is that 2.75% increase sucks.

You see, these workers (which include educational assistants, library workers, secretaries, therapy assistants, IT workers, and mechanical and maintenance workers) have been working off a contract that expired in August 2021.

Yes, you read that right. Their last contract expired 3.5 years ago.

And since the proposed wage increase was retroactive to only a year ago, that means that the mediator recommended wage freezes in the first 2.5 years of the proposed contract.

Actually, let’s take a look at the wage increases these workers received in the last contract and compare them to what the mediator proposed in a new contract.

1 September 2018	0.00%
1 September 2019	0.50%
1 September 2020	1.00%
1 September 2021	0.00%
1 September 2022	0.00%
1 September 2023	0.00%
1 February 2024	2.75%

So, over two contracts, they’d get 4 years of wage freezes and a 4.25% combined wage increase.

Meanwhile, the consumer price index of Alberta increased from 137.0 in 1 September 2017 to 166.0 in 1 September 2023. That 29-point jump is also a 21.17% increase.

Since inflation was 21.17% while these workers would’ve received a combined 4.25% wage increase, they’d end up with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 16.92%.

Well, no wonder they rejected an increase of 2.75% for this new contract!

Now, to be fair, the mediator also recommended a 5% market adjustment for some of the workers, but even for those who do qualify for it, it still leaves them with a real wage cut of over 10%.

But that’s not all. The mediator’s recommendation was for a contract that would’ve expired in August 2024.

It’s amazing to me that the school board was “very disappointed” that the workers rejected a below inflation wage increase in an already expired contract.

Not only that, but I can see why these workers voted 82% last Friday in favour of going on strike for a better contract.

Just because they voted to go on strike doesn’t mean they are on strike. The union must provide the employer with 72 hours of notice before they go on strike, which they haven’t done yet.

Typically, the workers’ bargaining committee will take the results of the strike vote (especially one with an extremely solid mandate, such as this one) into negotiations as leverage to get a better contract. Some employers will be motivated to avoid a strike by improving their offer.

Some employers might think the workers as bluffing, however. In this case though, if these workers go on strike, they’d be joining thousands of their fellow workers on the picket line. Education workers across the province are showing their employers they mean business.

These workers are tired of subpar wages and expired contracts.