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Nearly 900 Alberta education workers from Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) locals 3484 (Black Gold School Division) and 5543 (Parkland School Division) have reached a bargaining impasse and could join more than 4,000 other education support workers from Edmonton, Sturgeon and Fort McMurray already on strike. The main sticking point for negotiations has been wages.
Nearly 1,000 support workers from Fort McMurray were the first to take action after obtaining an overwhelming strike mandate in September 2024, and began rotating job actions two months later in November. After negotiations stalled around the question of wages, Fort McMurray workers went on strike on the January 7 of this year.
Over 3000 education support workers in Edmonton soon followed with a 97% strike mandate obtained back in October 2024, and have been on strike since January 13, along with 200 workers from Sturgeon School Division schools in small towns close to Edmonton.
Many education support workers, including educational assistants, library workers, nurses, clerks, administrative assistants, food workers, and various technicians, have not seen any meaningful wage increases in a decade, while inflation has increased 33% since 2014. Much of the impasse is due to the governing UCP (United Conservative Party) mandating that wage increases cannot be over 2.75%, which would not even cover inflation.
Wages have not been the only thing lagging behind. As CUPE Communications Officer Lou Arab told The North Star, Alberta has the lowest educational funding in Canada despite sitting on a projected budget surplus of $4.6 billion for this fiscal year. Last year’s budget surplus was $2.2 billion and previous years saw surpluses in the billions as well.
“If the provincial government does not take seriously the job of increasing school funding, there will be more strikes in Alberta this school year”, Arab vowed.
Far from discouraging the striking workers, UCP's hardline approach has driven them to press harder for their demands. In late October of last year, the education support workers were able to gather nearly 8,000 people at a rally outside the Alberta legislature, the largest show of workers' force in Alberta in decades, under the slogan: "Cutback? fightback!".
Lou Arab told The North Star that public support has also been “overwhelming and heartwarming, especially from parents.” Some parents have joined picket lines, including many union and public supporters.
UCP Finance Minister Nate Horner has mocked the strikers, falsely claiming that they are just part-time workers and do not deserve wage increases. Lou Arab responds, “It must be nice to be able to give yourself wage increases, [...]. Everybody deserves wage increases.”
A UCP-controlled Legislative Committee had started the New Year by giving themselves a wage increase and adding $1 million to the UCP Caucus budget.
The current salary of a member of legislature in Alberta is around $121,000 before the raise, whereas education support workers can make as little as $27,000 and on average $34,500, almost 4 times less than politicians.