NateHorner

Alberta government minister of finance Nate Horner and treasury board minister Demetrios Nicolaides accused CUPE of pressuring a nursing agency to stop providing services at schools. CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill called the accusations outrageous.

School support workers who are members of CUPE 3550 are in the fifth week of a strike that seems to be at an impasse. Environics Research recently conducted a survey for CUPE which found the majority of the 1,002 participants support the current job action and agreed that education workers in Alberta are underpaid and deserve wage increases.

Edmonton Public School support staff who are members of CUPE Local 3550 are on strike for higher wages. CUPE Local 3550 and the Edmonton Public Schools seem to have reached an impasse.

The Edmonton Public School board is maxed out and needs more funds from the provincial government to meet CUPE Local 3550's demands. Finance Minister Nate Horner says CUPE has accepted similar offers for thousands of workers across Alberta doing the same jobs so uses that to justify the government's refusal to add more to the coffers.

Another important factor is that all Edmonton MLAs are NDP members so it remains to be seen whether they can pressure the UCP government to reconsider their position.

CUPE Local 3550 has served the Edmonton Public School Board strike notice on behalf of 3,000 educational support staff. CUPE Local 3550 represents a wide range of support staff who work directly with students and in schools and central departments. The support staff can and likely will strike and establish picket lines as soon as Monday.

CUPE 3550 president Mandy Lamoureaux said some support staff have gone 10 years without a cost-of-living wage. According to CUPE, the average educational support worker in Alberta earns $34,500 per year.

Finance Minister Nate Horner said The work of educational assistants is important, but only takes place part-time and only during the school year. No one would expect to earn a full-time salary for 10 months of part-time work,”