About 2,700 public school support workers are getting a raise after signing a new collective agreement with the the Edmonton Public school board.
Educational assistants, library and science technicians, administrative assistants and other members of CUPE 3550 inked a two-year deal with the school board May 9. The information was made public at a school board meeting Tuesday.
Active from Sept. 1, 2015, to Aug. 31, 2017, the deal grants workers a 60-cent-per-hour raise across the board during the first year of the contract, and a 1.75 per cent raise during the second year, said Gloria Lepine, chief steward for CUPE 3550. Most of the raises will be paid retroactively, and the parties will soon plunge back into bargaining again.
“(I’m) disappointed. It shouldn’t take 20-plus months to negotiate a collective agreement,” Lepine said.
The previous agreement took 22 months to negotiate, she said.
“We’re going to be on a hope and a prayer that it’s not another 20 months,” Lepine said of entering into negotiations again soon.
Negotiating salaries and benefits and agreeing on terms of contracting out work took time, she said. Union members ratified the deal in April.
Educational assistants are in high demand in Edmonton’s public schools. The district has 1,200 EAs, plus a pool of substitutes to draw from if a worker is ill.
In a January email, school district spokeswoman Raquel Maurier said rapidly growing enrolment; increasingly complex, inclusive classrooms; and more funds available to hire EAs was leading to difficulties recruiting enough of the workers.
There’s a limited number of spaces available in a two-year training program at McEwan University, said CUPE 3550 treasurer Linda Harris.
The limited supply of workers will be further stretched next year when 11 new public schools open in the city, Harris said.
The union is working with the school district to see if some EAs can be trained on the job in schools, she said.
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