Members of the Calgary Catholic School District's (CCSD) support staff are voting to strike this week as they fight for a higher, "livable" wage. One staffer from Cochrane, who the Cochrane Eagle has agreed to keep anonymous and will refer to as "Phil," has worked for the board for over 10 years. Phil said he is still receiving almost the same pay as when he first started his career with the jurisdiction and it amounts to not much more than $28,000 annually. He works full time – 30 hours a week – but isn't paid for statutory holidays or Professional Development (PD) days, which includes two weeks for winter break, one week for spring break, plus nearly two months of summer vacation and multiple PD days. It amounts to more than 70 days of the year of mandatory, unpaid time off. Support staff positions include school office assistants, administrative secretaries and more. Support staff for CCSD are unionized through Unifor Local Union 1990, which has more than 1,500 members. The most current contract for support workers expired on Aug. 31, 2016. "My monthly take home is $1,800 per month. I went to university for four years and I love working with children. My job is expanding day-by-day and is demanding and yet once again we have gotten no pay raise," Phil said in a letter. For the last five years (three contracts), the support staff has been offered zero per cent raise in salary from CCSD and for the last two years, there has been no contract at all. "All we are asking for is a cost of living increase. We have families and are all struggling to make ends meet," Phil said. Some of the support staff positions are still being paid $15/hour, a wage which used to be $3 above the provincial minimum wage. "Now, they are equal and yet many of these people are college and university educated and have been with the board for over 10 years," Phil said. "Why stay? It’s what I was educated for and where my passion lays. My job responsibility has increased tenfold and yet the pay has stayed the same... And we are certainly not being paid for the increased responsibility." Tania Van Brunt, CCSD director of communications, said support staff personnel are hourly wage earners and the compensation is based on the job requirements. For example, those earning minimum wage despite having a degree are in roles that don't require more than a high school diploma and perhaps some certification courses. "It's one group and it's very typical that this kind of situation happens. Perhaps it's going longer than some of the other negotiations go on but as I mentioned it's not unusual for a contract to expire and a new one not be in place yet," Van Brunt said. "I think our hiring and compensation practices are fair." The Unifor employees will pick up their voting packages tonight and will vote whether to strike on Wednesday. "We love the job we do, with the wonderful children we get to work with, but we cannot afford to do it for much longer. The cost of living keeps increasing but our wage does not," Phil said. "School boards must be held accountable for what they are doing with government funded money and pay their “grunts” a livable wage." Another employee from Cochrane, who the Eagle has also agreed to keep anonymous and will refer to as Anne, has been working for CCSD for under five years. She said as her job gets more complicated, such as assisting students with learning disabilities and behavioural issues, adding she wants a wage that will at least cover her bills. Anne also has a dual role at the school, a classroom assistant and noon-hour supervisor, which she is compensated for separately, she is paid minimum wage for the latter. "I don't ever have a line where I take one hat off and put the other hat on you know. I'm paid the exact same rate to do the exact same job which is tough." CCSD isn't the first jurisdiction to go on strike this year. Support staff employees under the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) who work at Living Waters Catholic Schools in Edson, Slave Lake and Whitecourt, went on strike on Oct. 1 this year. *Disclaimer names and genders of staff interviews are generated to protect anonymity. Any match to current staff is coincidental.
