Three days into a strike by education support staff in Alberta, the union has reported that schools are bringing in substitute teachers to shoulder the extra work usually done by the striking workers.
Education support staff in two districts, Sturgeon Public Schools and the Edmonton Public Schools, began strike action on Monday. Represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the more than 3,000 workers have cited poor wages as their main concern.
“Some support staff have gone ten years without a cost of living wage increase,” said Mandy Lamoureux, president of CUPE 3550 representing workers at Edmonton Public Schools. “Many of our members work two to three jobs to earn a living wage.”
Lamoureux said the average yearly salary for education support workers in Alberta is only $34,500. In December, the union rejected a 2.75 per cent wage increase offer.
CUPE said that substitute teachers are being paid $230 per day, which is more than the wage being asked for by educational support staff.
“While the Alberta government tells support staff to be happy with poverty level wages, there’s apparently enough money to cover extra teachers’ salaries,” Lamoureux said.
Due to poverty wages, the Edmonton Public School Board is dealing with a 10 per cent vacancy rate, CUPE Alberta stated in their press release. These vacancies are negatively impacting the quality of services workers can deliver.
President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Gil McGowan, said the United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is to blame for the low wages.
“Their refusal to adequately fund the system is making it impossible to attract and retain critical staff and it’s threatening the quality of education in Alberta,” McGowan said. “The situation is even more galling when you consider that the UCP is recording multi-billion-dollar surpluses and increasing handouts to profitable oil and gas companies while, at the same time, telling education assistants that they’re greedy for asking for wages that would lift them out of poverty.”
According to research by the Fraser Institute, Alberta spends the least on public schools per-pupil compared to the other provinces. In the 2021-22 school year, Alberta spent $13,421 per student while the national average spent was approximately $15,700 per student.
While the issue of underfunded education is particularly acute in Alberta, the struggles faced by support staff in Edmonton and Sturgeon could resonate with workers across the country, according to new data from the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF).
The federation released initial findings from their first new pan-Canadian educator survey which gathered responses from almost 5,000 education professionals, including teachers, principals, education assistants, and support workers.
CTF found that 63 per cent of educators feel their province or territory is “not supportive at all.” Almost 80 per cent of educators say they are struggling to manage growing and unpredictable workloads.
Education workers are taking on long hours with 73 per cent of educators working more than 45 hours per week and 35 per cent exceeding 48 hours. Poor work conditions often lead to retention issues which will only exacerbate problems in Canada’s public school systems. Almost all educators surveyed said staff shortages are affecting students by depriving them of needed services and supports.
The education strikes in Alberta are caused by issues not unique to the province. Provincial governments across the country, not just in Alberta, need to take action if they intend to dodge further strikes.
“The best way to solve the crisis in the classrooms is to solve the underfunding problem, the low wage problem, and the recruitment problem,” said Mandy Lamoureux.
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