‘They’re still fighting’: Jagmeet Singh joins striking workers in Edmonton

Jagmeet Singh joined educational assistants on the picket line in Edmonton.

Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh hit the picket line with Edmontonians on Wednesday.

Singh, along with local NDP MPs Blake Desjarlais and Heather McPherson, met with striking workers outside Ross Sheppard High School.

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“New Democrats support these workers,” Singh said. “What these workers are asking for is to be able to work one job, not multiple jobs.

“One job where they work hard. That should be enough to pay the bills, and right now it is not.”

About 3,000 education support staff from the Edmonton Public School Board have been on strike since early January, after a Dispute Inquiry Board failed to help both sides reach a deal.

“It’s really cold and our members are still on this picket line, they’re still fighting. And so, if they can get through this, they can get through anything,” CUPE Local 3550 president Mandy Lamoureaux said.

“This is not an Edmonton Public issue. This is an Alberta-wide issue,” she added. “There’s a 10-per-cent vacancy rate in the school systems with support staff for a reason.

“They deserve a livable wage. They shouldn’t have to hold too many jobs. We’re not asking for a lot.”

• Union representing support staff leaves bargaining table, says Edmonton school board

CUPE Local 3550, the union representing them, said the average educational support worker earns $34,500 in a year. It said the 2.75-per-cent raise being offered, which is capped by the Government of Alberta, is not enough to address sharp increases in the costs of living.

The Government of Alberta said negotiations are between school boards and unions, while the Edmonton Public School board said it has offered all it can given the provincial cap.

Press secretary for the minster of finance said setting fiscal limits is within the province’s roles and responsibilities.

“The provincial government’s role in the collective bargaining process is to ensure that the cost of collective agreements bargained by public sector employers are aligned with the province’s fiscal reality,” Justin Brattinga said.

“The Public Sector Employers Act put this long-standing practice, which was also used by the NDP, into law.”

Education support staff are also on strike in Sturgeon County and Fort McMurray, and five more schools divisions in the Edmonton and Calgary areas have voted to go on strike.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is calling on the governing United Conservative Party to increase education funding in the upcoming budget, saying Alberta has the lowest per-student funding in Canada.

The Government of Alberta has repeatedly accused CUPE of interfering in local negotiations and “using tactics of fear and intimidation,” including pressuring a nursing agency to withdraw from offering services to Edmonton Public School Board during the strike.

• Alberta CUPE president says UCP claims of national interference in local bargaining ‘outrageous’

“Alberta’s government and school boards have shown up to the table to find a path forward, but CUPE National leaders clearly have ulterior motives that are not in the best interests of their members or Alberta students,” said a joint statement from Alberta’s ministers of finance and education.

Alberta CUPE president Rory Gill has called the province’s allegations “full of falsehoods and baseless attacks.”

With files from CTV News Calgary’s Michael Franklin