Hundreds of picketers, parents, students and supporters lined the streets outside Province House in Halifax on Tuesday in frustration, as a strike by school support workers approaches the one-month mark.
Demonstrations were also held at the Armdale Roundabout, Grand Parade and the Macdonald Bridge area — all to bring more attention to the labour dispute.
Tanya Salomon, an educational program assistant (EPA) with the schools, said picketers were trying to make sure “that the public knows that we’re still here and that we still need a living wage.”
“Most of our members are living on $1,500 or less each month,” said Salomon.
“With the prices in Halifax, inflation … our benefit prices have gone up, our long-term disability payments have gone up. And that’s just not enough to support ourselves or our families.”
She said some support workers have second jobs and rely on food banks.
More than 1,800 school support workers in the Halifax area went on strike on May 10, after members of CUPE Local 5047 voted not to ratify a tentative agreement reached with the province.
The union was seeking wage increases greater than what the government proposed, which was 6.5 per cent over a three-year contract.
While schools remain open, EPAs and other support workers are off the job, and pre-primary programs are paused.
Some students who rely on EPAs in the classroom have been unable to attend school during the strike. Parents of pre-primary students have also told Global News they’ve had to scramble to find child care during this time.
Samantha McPhee and her four-year-old daughter Hazel, who is in pre-primary, were at the rally outside Province House.
“She needs to be in school. Her routine is all thrown off. She misses them,” said McPhee. “She asks me every morning, ‘Mommy are you making my lunch so I can go to school today?’ (And I say,) ‘No, I’m not making your lunch, you’re not going to school today.’ And she just cries. She wants to see her teachers. She sobs so hard.”
McPhee said she is now searching for child care to “get us through June” before summer camps start.
She’s appealing to the government to make a better offer to the striking workers.
“These kids matter, they’re important, their voices are important,” said McPhee.
“All their teachers are asking for is to be able to pay their bills. When did being able to pay their bills become a privilege?”
In a previous statement to Global News, the Department of Labour said seven other regions in the province, as well as the French school board, accepted the tentative agreement in May and that the Halifax union local’s demand would “undo the wage parity” offered.
“The union asked for three things — common table bargaining, alignment of agreement dates, and wage parity across the province — and the employers, with the support of the Province, delivered on each one,” the statement read.
“The Halifax Local rejected the agreement and is asking for wage and other increases beyond what the tentative agreement contained.”
No talks scheduled
Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) spokesperson Lindsey Bunin confirmed that no talks were scheduled between HRCE and CUPE as of Tuesday.
“We remain hopeful that the job action will conclude and students will have the opportunity to return to school before the end of June,” she wrote in an email.
In the meantime, she said HRCE is working with families on a “case-by-case basis to ensure reasonable opportunities for all students to access education.”
That includes using their casual and substitute employee lists, redeploying staff, recruiting new employees and having students with special needs to come to school for part of the day.
CUPE Local 5047 President Chris Melanson has voiced concern about the hiring of replacement workers, saying he wasn’t sure “if they’re trying to starve our members out.”