MEDIA RELEASE: School Support Workers Positioned to Strike

More than 600 school support workers are poised to strike in the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education, and hundreds more may be ready to join them in other parts of the province in early October.

Members of NSGEU Local 73 (AVRCE) voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action this spring, and on Wednesday evening, rejected the employer’s final offer by 97 per cent. Meanwhile, members of NSGEU Local 70 (South Shore Regional Centre for Education) and Local 74 (Tri-County Regional Centre for Education) voted 97 and 100 per cent in favour of strike, respectively. Their bargaining committees have recommended rejecting their employers’ final offers, and those votes are set to begin next week and conclude on October 11th and 12th, respectively.

“These members all care deeply for the students, families and communities they serve, but they are being forced to take a stand to ensure workers are being paid the same wages for doing the same work across this province,” said NSGEU President Sandra Mullen, “Many of these workers have also had their scope of work expand drastically, while their pay has not.”

Members of these locals include Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, Student Support Workers, Schools Plus Outreach workers, Administrative Professionals, Parent Navigators, Library Personnel, Child and Youth Practitioners, Student Supervisors, Payroll and IT staff.

“These workers provide critical services for our school system. The employers and government have an opportunity to ensure these workers are being paid a fair wage for the incredibly important work they are doing within our educational system,” said Mullen.

Together, members of Locals 70, 73, and 74 represent more than 800 workers in the South Shore, Tri-County and Annapolis Valley Centres for Education.

For Local 73, which represents over 600 members, their 14-day countdown to a strike (also known as the cooling-off period) has already elapsed. The union must give 48 hours’ notice prior to declaring a strike.

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The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union represents over 34,000 workers who provide quality public services Nova Scotians count on every day.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with NSGEU President Sandra Mullen, please contact:

Holly Fraughton, NSGEU Communications Officer,
902-471-1781 (cell)
hfraughton@nsgeu.ca