The Edmonton Catholic School Board hopes support staff will be back at work by Tuesday, after a tentative agreement was reached, Friday afternoon.
A memorandum of agreement was reached between the Catholic school district and the union representing support staff workers. Both the union and the district have agreed to support and recommend the terms of the settlement.
The agreement addresses all of the issues the union brought forward including wages in the second contract year, job security, and secretarial workload.
Specific details of the deal are not being released until after the members vote on whether or not to ratify the agreement.
Both union and school board officials say they are excited with the possibility that staff members could be back at work by Tuesday.
“This is the first strike that we have ever had in the Edmonton Catholic School District and it is very divisive, it is very difficult, because these are our colleagues and our friends. We are hoping that we will resolve everything via a vote on Monday and have everyone back to work,” said Edmonton Catholic Schools spokesperson Lori Nagy.
“There’s going to be a whole bunch of work out there for us to catch up on. There will be some students that’ll be very happy to see us,” said Danny Burrell with CEP 52-A.
Support staff, which include secretaries, librarians and special needs assistants, have been off the job for three weeks. Nearly 900 workers walked off the job on September 10th.
The union will hold a meeting at Santa Maria Goretti Centre on Monday morning to present the deal to its members and vote on whether or not to ratify the agreement.
The district hopes to have the employees back to work as early as Tuesday morning.
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