Other unions and supporters are being asked to help keep strikers whole as they fight for higher wages and dignity

EDMONTON – The president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) says the UCP has a clear strategy of trying to “starve education workers out” as thousands of them strike at school boards across the province for wages that would reflect their true value to the education system.

“These workers keep our schools running and do work that has never been properly valued,” says AFL president Gil McGowan. “The UCP knows that education support workers have limited resources – so they’re deliberately stalling at the bargaining table in order to break them financially and force them to accept unacceptable deals. It’s a shameful strategy that cannot be allowed to succeed.”

In an effort to thwart the UCP’s “starve them out” strategy, the AFL has launched an “Adopt-a-Striker” action asking other unions and supporters to donate enough money to top-up picket pay for strikers “so they can stay out on the picket line as long as it takes to get a fair deal.”

McGowan urges the media and the public to not buy into UCP arguments that the strikes are “matters between the unions and school boards” and that the government has no role to play.

“The Premier and the Minister must think Albertans are pretty stupid,” says McGowan. “It’s the provincial government that funds the school system. They control the purse strings. They’re the ones who set the bargaining mandates. They even have their own people at each school board bargaining table orchestrating negotiations. It’s also the UCP that’s been funding our schools at the lowest level in the country. And it’s the UCP that’s trying to keep education workers in poverty even as the government gives hundreds of millions of dollars to their friends in for-profit health care. It’s time for us to put the blame for these strikes where it belongs, and that’s at the feet of the UCP.”

The funds raised through the Adopt-a-Striker action will go to locals where members have been on strike for at least a month. At the moment, that means CUPE members on strike against the Edmonton Public School Board and the public and Catholic School boards in Fort McMurray.

More locals will be added to the list if their strikes reach the one-month mark.

Locals, not the AFL, will decide how to distribute the money amongst their members. Money will go to strikers in the greatest need. The goal is to help get an extra $300 a week to the strikers that need it most – but reaching that goal will depend on the number of donations received and the number of strikers in the greatest need.

Donations can be made here.

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Ian Hussey
Director of Research and Political Action, AFL
Email: ihussey@afl.org