Another school district’s support workers vote to strike
Posted June 1, 2013 9:24 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NANAIMO (NEWS1130) – Nanaimo school support workers have voted in favour of taking strike action.
Their union predicts by the end of June all of BC’s support workers will have voted in favour of a strike. Half of BC’s 57 school district support staff have already undertaken strike votes.
The support workers perform a wide range of duties, from helping teachers in the classroom and driving school buses, to maintaining school property.
“The situation with the support workers in Nanaimo is exactly the same situation with the school district workers across the province. They’re faced with an employer (the BC Public School Employers’ Association) that is chronically underfunded by the provincial government. The education system is suffering because of that, “says Kirk Oates with CUPE.
They’ve been told there isn’t any money for wage increases, which is a major issue.
“A lot of people don’t realize that some of those folks are only working four or five hours a day. We are not the overpaid public sector workers some people seem to think we are. The average wage is $24,000 a year for CUPE members in the education sector,” Oates explains.
Support workers haven’t had a wage increase since 2009. Job action wouldn’t happen until September.
