CUPE 748 members feeling the pinch, but still support teachers in fight for new contract
By Bruce Fuhr
Despite agreeing to a tentative five-year contract earlier this month, more than 700 education support staff from CUPE 748 are walking the picket lines with their teacher colleagues.
CUPE 748 members have been there right from the start of job action standing by the BC Teachers’ Federation and supporting their fellow union members.
“Solidarity is extremely important and there are sacrifices that have to be made,” said CUPE Local 748 president Michelle Bennett.
“School District 8 employs approximately 700 people, with the exception of the exempt staff, all of them are out right now.”
The CUPE deal includes a wage increase of about five-and-a-half percent over five years, increased hours for education assistants, improvements to extended health benefit plans through standardization and also guaranteed full pay if staff choose to not cross a teacher picket line.
Bennett admitted the strike is becoming a hardship to not only teachers, but also the CUPE 748 members, that includes education assistants, secretaries, bus drivers, custodians journey men, computer technicians, noon hours supervisors and library resource assistants.
“(This strike putting strain on) the communities we all live in,” she said.
“With no money coming in we are not spending money in our communities.”
“It’s a huge hardship on everyone involved in the strike and the communities, but for the most part the moral is great,” Bennett added.
“CUPE is supporting the teachers in the job action, always have always will.”
Bennett was unsure if CUPE would return to work after June 30 if a deal is not reached between the BCTF and B.C. Public School Employers’ Association.
However, BCTF president Jim Iker said Wednesday the teachers’ union plans to picket summer schools if a deal is not reached by June 30.
Iker said the deal must include:
ker said B.C. teachers are seeking a deal based on five key points:
- a five-year term
- a 8 per cent salary increase plus signing bonus
- no concessions
- an annual workload fund that adequately addresses issues of class size, class composition, and staffing ratios as an interim measure while both parties await the next court ruling
- a retroactive grievances fund, as a resolution to Justice Griffin’s B.C. Supreme Court decision that retroactively restored the stripped language from 2002. This fund would be used to address other working conditions like preparation time and TTOC compensation improvements, as well as modest improvements to health benefits.
The BCPSEA previously released documentation of what much of the teachers proposals would cost.
Despite talks going nowhere, Bennett is pleased at the support on the picket lines.
“I would like to say a huge “thank you” to all of the teachers and CUPE members who are out on the line everyday rain or shine, the picket captains who are running non stop to make sure everything runs smoothly, the community members who are dropping off goodies, coming to the rallies, honking when they drive by, and of course to the neighbors around the schools who have to listen to the honking all day,” Bennett said.
“Everyone involved has had such a positive attitude. . ..”
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