Educational assistants with the Hanover School Division in Manitoba are walking the picket lines, after months of negotiations toward a new contract.
The strike began on Nov. 1, after a notice was issued by the union representing the workers last week. The Christian Labour Association of Canada delivered the notice last Friday.
In a press release on Tuesday, the union said the strike is necessary. Geoff Dueck Thiessen, the regional director in Manitoba, stated that picket lines are set up in various locations across Steinbach.
Dueck Thiessen said that at issue is the demand for fairer wages. He added that the union and the school division agree on a number of things, but the call for better pay is what remains.
“The energy is good out here on the picket line. There’s a high level of participation. People are feeling like this is what needs to happen,” said Dueck Thiessen.
In terms of pay, the director noted that educational assistants want to be paid equally or as close to such compared to neighbouring school divisions. Because with the cost of living being the same for each division, he said, and the job remaining the same, the workers want to be paid “equitably with the people who live just down the road.”
According to Dueck Thiessen, the wage gap between workers from the Hanover School Division and other divisions is estimated between $2 to $4.
“We’re definitely motivated to get to the table and get a deal. We’re not striking to strike. We’re striking to get a good deal,” said Dueck Thiessen. “I don’t know how optimistic to be, but I’m definitely hopeful that this can be a short strike. And we can get back to the table and get these people back to doing what they want to do, which is work with the students who they care about.”
The school division, in a statement on Wednesday, said that it had given the union an offer that included a wage increase of 13 per cent over a four-year term. It also said that the offer was open to being accepted by Nov. 15. It said that the wage increases were offered as a way to address concerns related to current rates being lower than other school divisions.
The statement further read that the increases would be in “excess of the annual funding increases received from the province for 2022 and 2023.”
The division said that it is committed to ongoing discussions. It emphasized that it has no intention of engaging in a “lockout or preventing any employees who wish to work from continuing to work during the strike.”
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