Vote the Frost 4 in '24
Description: Passionately defending public education
This week, parents, teachers and students will all be holding their collective breath, hoping for an 11th hour agreement to be reached between Premier Tim Houston’s Tory government and the approximately 5400 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), who are in a legal strike position as of April 21st.
CUPE, which represents a variety of education support workers across the province, has been trying to hammer out a bargain for its members since about 2020 when the last of the various regional agreements ran out. The final hurdle standing in the way of a contract being signed seems to be coming down, perhaps not surprisingly, to money.
There are, of course, the standard two sides to this issue. According to a statement from Education Minister Becky Druhan, “employers have offered a generous compensation package to employees with significant wage increases to many classifications.” For his part, CUPE 5047 President Chris Melanson recently told reporters “The employers have lots of time to come back to the table and negotiate a fair deal that helps all of our members, not just a select few”.
Vote the Frost 4 in '24