Two more school boards hiring scabs

Earlier this week, I wrote an article about the Calgary Board of Education hiring scabs to delay negotiating with the 800 education support workers they employ, who have been working on an expired contract since last summer.

Well, it turns out, they’re not the only ones.

The Calgary Catholic School Division has also been stalling negotiations with their 350 education support workers. Their most recent contract expired last August, and it had given them only a 3.75% raise, which came on the heels of 7 years of wage freezes.

Well last week, the Calgary Catholic School Division shared an update in their online newsletter, which outlines that they plan to hire scab workers to cross the picket line to perform the labour that they’re not willing to pay their unionized workers fairly to do.

All CCSD schools will remain open during any job action. CCSD has a contingency plan in place to maintain safety and cleanliness in our schools, which includes contracting certified individuals to check boilers and HVAC systems, contracting individuals to clean schools and engaging existing contractors to complete snow removal tasks as needed.

Bryan Szumlas, the school district chief superintendent, reiterated this in an email sent out to the district.

But wait. There’s more.

The Black Gold School Division employs nearly 600 education support workers. Like those in Calgary, these workers also had their most recent contract expire in August 2024.

Their last two contracts gave them only 4.25% over 7 years. Pathetic.

It turns out that Black Gold shared job posting on their Facebook and Twitter accounts for multiple youth care workers and health care aides. Get this though: they’re all temporary positions.

The youth care worker job posting reads a lot like an educational assistant, and those are all on strike.

The health care aide ad sounds like a licensed practical aide position, and, yep, they’re also on strike.

And with more strikes around the corner, this probably won’t be the last we see of this.

Earlier this month, the Edmonton Public School Board had contracted a private nursing agency to perform the labour of striking workers. The agency, upon learning they were interfering with the negotiations process, withdrew their services.

Update (26 February 2025): In an email sent out today, Black Gold’s superintendent Michael Borgfjord, confirmed that the school division is “hiring temporary staff, as well as contractors”.