Both sides are feeling the frustration after three days of job action in the Saanich School District, home to nearly 8,000 students.
PIcket lines will be up again today.
About 500 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 441, including education assistants, clerical workers and custodians, are striking, with one of the main issues being workers receiving lower wages than in neighbouring school districts.
“I think it’s a terrible inconvenience for families, for students and parents,” said Saanich school board vice-chairwoman Elsie McMurphy. “I’m very worried about the impact on them.
“I wish I could see a quick resolution to the dilemma that we’re in right now.”
She said the district has been trying hard to reach an agreement, but the funding available for bargaining is set by the province.
“We’ve been very creative from the school district in mining every little loophole we could find within the straitjacket of the provincial framework.”
The district’s website says the “consistent understanding” among the Ministry of Education, the Public Sector Employers’ Council and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association is that there will be no provincial intervention related to the strike, “and the only way to resolve the dispute is for the parties to return to the bargaining table and work within the parameters of the provincial mandate.”
CUPE 441 president Dean Coates repeated his stance that the union is ready to talk, 24 hours a day.
“No dates have been set at this time, but both parties have been interested in meeting all the time,” he said, adding that the union is looking for “modest funding that meets the needs of our members and improves the services to students.”
He said he is encouraged by what Education Minister Rob Fleming has said about providing assistance to help the parties get back together.
McMurphy said the district recognizes the union’s desire for wage parity with similar workers in other districts. The union has said a specialized education assistant in the Saanich district earned $21.61 per hour under the last contract, versus a similar worker in the Sooke district earning $25.28 and one in the Greater Victoria district earning $25.20.
“We do acknowledge the parity questions, we do acknowledge the retention-and-recruitment issues, no doubt about it,” McMurphy said.
Coates said those recruitment issues are evident with education-assistant vacancies in the Saanich district, with only four out of 10 getting filled.
“You can’t profess to provide an inclusive education without those education assistants there.”
McMurphy said it’s good to see that CUPE’s provincial body has become involved in the strike. “I think that’s an indication of how serious this situation is.”
She said she is hopeful of a resolution.
“It’s grim,” she said. “We keep as many conversations going as we can, keep exploring whatever ideas are put to us. Whatever questions are raised, we try to answer. But we do feel constrained by the existing provincial agreement.”
District superintendent Dave Eberwein has said there is an openness for more negotiation as long as the money on the table is within the provincial mandate.
Coates said his members were buoyed Wednesday when representatives of CUPE Local 50 from the City of Victoria and CUPE Local 4163, University of Victoria teaching assistants, picketed in solidarity at the district office.
In addition, the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association expressed its support Wednesday for CUPE 441, saying it has an “excellent case” for a wage increase that gets it to parity with neighbouring districts.
The Saanich Teachers’ Association, with about 600 members, is not crossing the CUPE picket line. That means teachers are not getting paid, but they are supportive of the strikers, said association president Don Peterson.
