A school strike was averted, but it comes at a cost for the cash-strapped New Westminster school district, which will have to pay a 3.5 per cent wage increase for support staff over two years.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees’ and the provincial government’s bargaining agency, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, reached an agreement late Wednesday after the most-recent set of negotiations, which started Monday.
“There are mixed feelings,” Marcel Marsolais, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 409, said in response to the deal.
Marsolais, whose union represents support workers in schools, said the deal is still being discussed by presidents from union locals throughout the province, and it’s “not being accepted well” by some. As well, he noted, the contracts are subject to ratification by the local school districts.
The union’s collective agreements were negotiated under the province’s “cooperative gains mandate,” which means school districts have to pay for any wage increases for education assistants, clerks, trades workers, bus drivers and others.
But funding the wage increases in New Westminster will likely prove challenging for the district, which has a hefty $4.1-million deficit from previous years and had to cut approximately 60 jobs – about eight per cent of its workforce – to balance the coming year’s budget.
Maroslais previously told The Record that he was concerned that finding the savings to fund the wage increases would likely mean even more job cuts in New Westminster.
“It’s not going to be pretty,” he said at the time.
Al Balanuik, the district’s secretary-treasurer said school districts are required to get their savings plans to the ministry by mid-October.
“We have been working on our savings plan for weeks now,” he said. “We have presented information to the board, and we are seeking board direction - and that’s the extent of what I can tell you.”
Balanuik was still absorbing the news of the settlement and determining what it would cost when The Record contacted him Thursday morning.
“What I understand, is that the pay increase will unfold over the course of this school year,” Balanuik said, but noted he is waiting for more details to do a “proper” calculation of what the wage increase will cost the district.
Board of education chair Michael Ewen, who is also a teacher in the Surrey school district, said he felt “relief” when he heard that an agreement was reached.
“I was really concerned just from the way things sounded like they were that they were looking at job action next week, and that we would have the schools shut down for indeterminate amount of time. I’m relieved that we are not going to be doing that,” Ewen said.
As for the funds to pay for the raises, Ewen said at this point he doesn’t know what the “framework” is for covering the cost of the increases. But he did warn that if there’s no money from the province, it could mean more bad news for New Westminster.
“If the government’s not going to kick in money to pay for these things then that means it’s going to cost jobs in the district,” he said.
