After a second vote, support staff of the Edmonton Catholic Support Staff Association (ECSSA) have rejected the latest contract offer from the school district.
Last Wednesday, 277 support workers rejected the contract offer from the district and 202 supported it.
As a result, 916 support staff workers have been on the picket line since Monday morning. They include school secretaries, special needs teacher assistants, office clerks, library workers and teacher assistants.
Over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, all 916 staff members were eligible to vote on the district’s offer again. Of those who voted, 72 percent rejected the offer.
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A total of 760 staff voted on the offer. 546 rejected the contract offer, while 211 voted in favour of it. There were three spoiled ballots.
Striking workers are concerned about wages and also frustrated that their hours have been cut in past years and workloads in school offices keep growing.
The Edmonton Catholic School Board Chair, Debbie Engel, says she is extremely disappointed support staff rejected the latest offer. She says the first few days of the strike have already proven difficult.
“The teachers are suffering stress. It’s very difficult to replace that many talented skilled workers in such a short time. A lot of (the principals) were very hesitant to go into hiring mode before the labour relations board took the vote that our board requested.”
The board says the contract offer was a two year agreement with a 4.54 percent salary increase in the first year and a wage re-opener in the second year.
Engel says principals will immediately go into hiring mode to bring in replacement workers for the support staff. However, they won’t be able to hire assistants for children with special needs. Many of those children are being kept at home until the strike is resolved.
The support staff collective agreement expired August 31, 2011. The last collective agreement was in effect from September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2011.
Engel says schools will remain open as the strike continues.
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