School strikers have kids’ ‘love,’ special-needs grad tells pickets
Defence fund plentiful as support staff wait out impasse: union
Striking Catholic school support staff were urged Friday by a former special-needs student and their national union president to continue their fight.
Hundreds of picketing workers from the Edmonton Catholic Support Staff Association and supporters from other unions gathered on the sidewalk outside the Edmonton Catholic Schools downtown office for a rally Friday morning.
“You guys really do mean a ton to the students and they need you now, but you can’t be there for them. They’re definitely suffering,” said Daniel Purcell, a former special-needs student who now goes to the University of Alberta.
“Keep fighting on and you’ll get through this. Just feel great about what you’re doing and who you’re supporting, and know that your kids will love you as soon as you come back to wherever you work.”
Friday was the first day many of the workers were scheduled to pick up their strike pay, said Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, who came from Ottawa to attend the rally.
The Catholic support workers belong to Local 52-A of the union.
“Our defence fund, your defence fund — the one you’ve been contributing to all those years you paid your union dues — is in pretty healthy shape. We’ve got $45 million waiting,” Coles told the cheering crowd.
“I want you to consider this, when they’re on their knees and had enough and want you to go back to work, say, ‘No. One more day.’ ”
The school district negotiating committee met with union representatives for about two hours Friday afternoon, but the two sides didn’t resolve the impasse over wages, workload and job security.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll be meeting again next week,” Edmonton Catholic Schools spokeswoman Lori Nagy said.
The workers, mostly library staff, secretaries, teacher assistants and special-needs teacher assistants, have been on strike since Sept. 10. They have been without a contract since last fall.
Both sides have agreed to a retroactive 4.5-per-cent raise for last year. The school district has said it is unable to commit to a wage increase in the second year of the contract because it lacks the necessary funding.
Edmonton’s Catholic school board deployed dozens of employees from its central office this week to plug holes in its system caused by striking workers. Many specialneeds students have not been attending school because of the strike.
Special-needs teacher assistant Djurdja Marjanovich said on the picket line Friday morning a lack provincial-government funding coupled with an increasing workload means special-needs teacher assistants are working with too many students.