Classes cancelled again in Saanich schools as support staff ‘hold out’ on strike

Eighteen schools in the Saanich School District are closed for a second straight day Tuesday as support workers continue to strike over wages.

Eighteen schools in the Saanich School District are closed for a second straight day Tuesday as support workers continue to strike over wages.

With teaching staff respecting their colleagues' picket lines, there will be no classes for 7,300 students at K-12 schools in North Saanich, Central Saanich and Saanich.

The strike began Monday after 500 unionized support workers rejected the district's final offer to settle an ongoing wage dispute over the weekend. 

The biggest issue for support staff is wage parity: some workers in the district make several dollars less, per hour, than their counterparts in neighbouring school districts such as Victoria and Sooke.

The Saanich district has said it can only shrink the gap by so much because it is bound to bargain within a provincial framework, which only allows for a two per cent wage increase per year.

James Taylor, president of the Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils in the Saanich School District, said he's been speaking with both the union and the district and doesn't see an end to the deadlock.

“I can't see a way out in this particular situation,” Taylor said late Monday.

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 441 president Dean Coates said lower wages have been a problem for decades, creating recruitment and retention problems with staff. He previously described the union as being in a “constant state of triage” over the issue.

On Monday, Coates said workers aren't budging until either the district or the province finds a way to get to parity.

“The bargaining committee's directive from the membership is to hold out,” Coates said Monday.

District superintendent Dave Eberwein said support workers are paid hourly wages that are lower than those in other area districts — by between 30 cents and $4 per hour — because the union opted for better benefits decades ago.

Eberwein said the jobs that lag behind in wages are typically inside professions dominated by women.

“Both the union and the board agree we need to address the salaries for education assistants,” he said.

In a statement, the finance ministry said most support staff unions in B.C. have negotiated new contracts, and encouraged the Saanich School District and CUPE 441 to do the same.

Parents of students have been told they need to find alternative care for their children while the 18 district schools are closed. Eberwein said the district is trying to negotiate a goodwill agreement with child care facilities in some Saanich public schools to allow access to those sites. 

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