CUPE education workers sign two more deals

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on March 19, 2025.

newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com

Two more tentative agreements were reached Tuesday between CUPE educational support workers and the Calgary Board of Education and Parkland School Division.

The tentative deals come a day after the union reached deals with schools districts in Edmonton and Fort McMurray on Monday that will result in more than 4,000 striking education workers returning to work as early as today.

CUPE says it will not be releasing details of the settlements publicly until its members have had a chance to look it over, however the two new deals include wage agreements higher than the original mandates imposed by the province, and will be in effect for a three-year period concluding August 2028.

CUPE members working with at Edmonton Public Schools will vote on their agreement tomorrow and if accepted, they are expected to return to work Thursday.

The results of an electronic ratification vote for members of CUPE local 5543 working at Parkland School District are expected to be released this morning. If approved members would return to work Friday.

“Education support workers have shown great courage and determination,” said Rory Gill, president CUPE Alberta. “I’m so happy for them that they have won the respect they deserve.”

The Alberta Teachers Association says it hopes the new deals will help end the remaining strikes at school districts in the province.

“These agreements, achieved through the sacrifice of workers in CUPE locals 2545 and 2559 over the last four months, will finally lift the heavy burden this labour action has placed on support workers, students and teachers,” said freshly re-elected president Jason Schilling.

That burden however, is still affecting education workers who remain on the picket line fighting for higher wages.

Terra Creasy, an education assistant who works with the Foothills Division Schools, wrote to the News sharing concerns with the current wages paid within the sector.

“My passion and dedication are increasingly strained by the simple, undeniable fact that I, along with many of my colleagues, am not paid a livable wage,” writes Creasy. “Despite our crucial role in supporting Alberta’s children and the education system as a whole, we have not received a meaningful raise in over a decade.”

Creasy says educational support workers are not asking for “exorbitant salaries,” but fair wages that reflect the importance of their work.

“The ability to raise a family without constant financial stress should not be a luxury, but a basic right for those dedicating their careers to shaping the future generation.”

Last week, educational assistants, clerical and custodial staff at Medicine Hat Public School Division voted in an Alberta Labour Board process, called for after a tentative agreement was signed off on by local union leaders within an hour of their dismal by national union officials.

CUPE then filed a “bad faith bargaining” accusation with the labour board, while the school division applied for a “last offer” vote process put directly to employees.

Gill said in a release that 235 out of 274 eligible members took part in a labour board-supervised voting on March 10 and 11. The result was a 79.1 per cent rejection of the proposal.

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