More than 500 people gathered at the Grand Parade in front of Halifax’s City Hall on Thursday to rally in support of the Halifax area school support workers who are on strike.
It’s been seven days on the picket lines for Halifax-area CUPE Local 5047 union members, who last week rejected a tentative agreement negotiated with the government.
CUPE Local 5047 represents more than 1,800 education workers in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education and are one of seven local bargaining units.
All seven other unions voted to accept the tentative agreement offer tabled by the Tim Houston PC government but the Halifax-area union voted against the offer.
CUPE Local 5047 president Chris Melanson is calling on the government to get back to the negotiation table with what he calls a fair deal now for school support workers.
“Our workers are underpaid and undervalued and are not being respected by government,” said Melanson.
CUPE Local 5047 said they voted against the proposed agreement because the offer wasn’t enough of a pay increase for its workers in the Halifax-area.
“When you are looking at the cost of inflation, when you are looking at the cost of fuel and gas and rent, there’s just not enough,” said Melanson. “We have a lot of our members still working and living in poverty.”
This rally was organized by the union and parents who rely on school support workers to assist their children in navigating day-to-day learning at the schools.
Heather Langley helped organize the rally. She was there with her daughter Lucy who is disabled and relies on school support workers at school.
“This has been the hardest week we have had in her (Lucy’s) 11 years,” said Langley. “The stress, the sleepless nights and just trying to figure out how to fight for her.”
Langley has had to pull her daughter Lucy from school during the strike, but sides with the education support workers and says they aren’t paid enough.
“I can’t imagine living off the low wages that they are paid,” said Langley.
The average take home salary for full time CUPE education support workers is between $1,400.00 to $1,800.00 per month said Mary-Dan Johnston, Atlantic communications representative with CUPE.
“Of the 1,800 members, about 300 or less are full-time,” said Johnston.
Johnston adds the vast majority of CUPE Local 5047 members are not full-time employees.
“We have a lot of members and a lot of single moms that are having to work two or three jobs to make ends meet,” said Melanson.
The union who's workers are employed by the Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) is calling on the government to return to the bargaining table and negotiate for what they call a “fair deal.”
The provinces minister of education Becky Druhan told reporters the government is disappointed there's a strike underway and said the union received everything they asked for at the bargaining table, including partiy in pay right across the province.
"We are hopeful that CUPE can sort through the situation that they are in right now, where they have recommended acceptance of agreement which has been accepted by seven of eight of the entities, so they can work throughout that with the HRCE bargaining unit," said Druhan. "And I am sure once they have worked through that and have a solution for it, when they are interested to come back to the table, HRCE as a region will be ready and waiting for that."
