SSRCE School Bus. Photo Ed Halverson

School support workers in the South Shore will vote today on a deal to end their nearly two- week long strike.

The tentative agreement was reached between South Shore Regional Centre of Education and Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union bargaining teams Tuesday with the help of a conciliator.

The union’s bargaining committee is recommending members accept the agreement when they vote on the deal later today.

If the agreement is ratified the workers could be off the picket lines and back into schools Thursday.

The proposed deal comes the same day union members from the Annapolis Valley voted by 92.3 per cent to accept their new tentative agreement.

According to a release from the NSGEU, Annapolis Valley School Support workers will be leveled up to the highest rates of pay for their positions in Nova Scotia during the life of this collective agreement, which extends from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2024.

Getting wage parity for workers in the same jobs across Nova Scotia was the goal of walkouts held in the Valley and South Shore in the past two weeks.

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen was pleased the provincial government let the bargaining process play out.

“After more than a decade of living with the austerity legacy of past-Premier Stephen McNeil, we are finally able to see that the collective bargaining process works, when it is allowed to do so,” said President Mullen, “The current government not only allowed the bargaining process to unfold as it should – without legislative interference tipping the scales – but they have agreed to the principle of parity and fairness for these workers, and that is something that should be credited.”

No details of the proposed agreement between the South Shore Regional Centre for Education and its workers will be released until the membership has the opportunity to see and vote on the deal today.

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Striking workers walk a picket line in Liverpool. Photo Susan MacLeod

Striking school workers could be back on the job by Thursday.

After two days of bargaining a deal was reached between representatives of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) and the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education.

The union is recommending members take the offer but are not releasing details of the tentative agreement until workers see it first at their meeting tonight.

Workers from two school districts, the Annapolis Valley and South Shore have been on strike for over a week demanding workers doing the same job are paid the same wage regardless of where they live in the province.

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen says union members have done a good job bringing Nova Scotians to their side by explaining they’re looking for basic fairness.

In fact, when walking the line in Liverpool she spoke with five teenage boys who saw first-hand how school life is impacted by the workers absence.

“I said do you miss these folks being in the school and they said Oh my God, we’re on the line with these guys this is great, and yes we miss you because they don’t know how to do anything. They’re messing up the buzzers and they’re messing up. So, when you have five teenage boys missing the folks that support them in that school they know that these people are who support the students every day and so I mark that as pretty clear that folks know what’s going on and what it’s about,” said Mullen.

Representatives for workers and the South Shore Regional Centre for Education will return to the bargaining table today.

Because the strike from both unions was about getting wage parity across the province, it is safe to assume negotiators representing NSGEU Local 70 will be looking for the same deal the valley workers are voting on this evening.

If bargaining goes well, and members can arrange a vote, school support workers from both regions could be back on the job ahead of Remembrance Day, Friday.

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NSGEU President Sandra Mullen speaks to a striking working in Chester. Photo courtesy NSGEU

School support workers are a week into their strike with no end in sight.

The members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) Local 70 and 73 representing the South Shore and Annapolis Valley are striking to demand equal pay with their counterparts across the province.

NSGEU president Sandra Mullen says the pay scale for every other civil servant in Nova Scotia is the same regardless of where they live, and school workers should be no different.

“The wage for a nurse is the same no matter where they work and the MLAs. The base salary for an MLA is the same across this province whether they are in Metro, Sydney or Yarmouth or in between, it’s the same,” said Mullen.

Striking union members were in the Nova Scotia Legislature on Tuesday to allow MLAs to put a face on the workers on the picket line.

On the floor, NDP MLA Kendra Coombes asked Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Becky Druhan why someone working in the minister’s own riding shouldn’t be paid the same as someone from the city.

The minister replied her government supports parity for all workers across the province, but her department is not directly involved in negotiations.

“There seems to be a misconception across the table as to who exactly is party to the collective agreements that we have in place in education,” said Druhan. “I’d like to remind the members that the parties to our agreements in education are the Regions or the CSAP and the unions. Those are the parties who bargain these deals, those are the parties who are negotiating.”

Mullen isn’t buying it.

She says under the previous school board structure each board would set their own budget and work within it when bargaining wages.

Mullen says since the previous Liberal government under Stephen McNeil abolished the school boards and created the Regional Centres for Education, the money is funnelled from the department so there’s no reason not to set provincial standards for wages.

“So, I believe they’re just throwing it back on the Regional Centre for Education as the employer. Perhaps they are the employer but there’s no doubt in my mind that the decisions they make come from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Learning [Development],” said Mullen. “That is how we have seen pre-primary programs put in every school is because its provincial it’s the same. So, if we’re going to offer the same curriculum, the same programs in all of those schools, support, outreach programs, all of those things, there’s no reason why they can’t be paid the same.”

A conciliator has invited the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education and NSGEU Local 73 back to the table for a meeting Friday.

No word yet on when the South Shore Regional Centre for Education and its union will return to negotiations.

Meanwhile, striking workers are resolved to stay out of schools and walking picket lines until they get equal pay for equal work.

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NSGEU workers in Annapolis Valley strike October 24, 2022. Photo Courtesy NSGEU

Workers at schools across the South Shore will be on strike Tuesday morning.

The South Shore Regional Center for Education issued a statement informing parents schools will remain open for grade primary to 12 students, but because Early Childhood Educators won’t be in the classroom the pre-primary program will not be offered.

Members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union Local 70 including Early Childhood Educators; Outreach Workers, Student Support Workers, Office Administration Assistants; Clerks and IT Support Specialists voted with a 92 percent majority to reject the latest contract offer from the South Shore Regional Centre for Education.

They’re unhappy people who do the same jobs are paid differently depending on which Centre for Education they work for in the province.

Across Nova Scotia, each of the seven Regional Centres and the French school board negotiate their own contracts with their employees.

NSGEU president Sandra Mullen says it doesn’t make sense to have separate contracts with different rates of compensation when the money is coming from one source: the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

“It’s one department and it should be the same wage across,” said Mullen. “ And you know, we have government on record saying they want to get there too. So, now’s the time.”

South Shore Regional Centre for Education Executive Director Paul Ash says the Regional Centre will do its best to get people into key positions to minimize the disruption.

“Obviously when you lose 160 individuals as a result of an impending strike action, we won’t have the same number of resources available but our first and primary goal is to focus on continuing to support the needs of our students,” said Ash.

He says since the days of the old school boards, each region has negotiated contracts with their own employees.

Ash believes a fair offer was made to the Local to stave off a strike and says steps are being prepared to provide parity across all school districts.

“There is a plan to conduct a comprehensive review of all the jobs within all the entities and then align that compensation across the province,” said Ash. “Unfortunately, we’re not at a point where that is happening right now.”

Of the seven regional centres, NSGEU represents five, including Tri-County, South Shore, Annapolis Valley, Chignecto-Central and Halifax.

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen (left) on the picket line with an Annapolis Valley worker October 24, 2022. Photo courtesy NSGEU

NSGEU President Mullen says she’d like to see the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development take a more prominent role in negotiations to ensure parity across all regions.

“They’re not sitting in the room when we negotiate, but I’m sure they’re behind the curtain,” said Mullen.

The South Shore is the second local to strike after NSGEU members in Annapolis Valley already walked off the job Monday.

Mullen says her members would rather be in school doing what they love instead of walking a picket line.

“That’s the heartbreaking part of all this. It is not the children or the school administrator they’re upset with. It is government,” said Mullen. “And it’s government who can make this right.”

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