School support staff union accuses Houston government of stalling contract talks

The union that represents 5,000 school support workers across Nova Scotia accused the Houston government Wednesday of standing in the way of contract negotiations.

Nelson Scott, a lead negotiator with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said the Progressive Conservative government has taken a hard line on wage increases and has refused to allow union locals to bargain at a single negotiating table.

"We had the common table [previously] with the government, but now they don't want us to have a common table," said Nelson. "They want every RCE [regional centre for education] to negotiate their own contracts.

"I would say that's a divide and conquer situation. It's just another stall tactic for the government."

Union locals at the seven English-language regional centres for education and the province's French-language school board were scheduled to negotiate in November, but those meetings were cancelled after Premier Tim Houston's snap election call.

Union wants 'what's fair to us'

All the locals are now in conciliation, but Scott said all the wage offers are the same — a three per cent raise in the first year and two per cent in each of the following years of a three-year contract.

Rather than the percentage increases, the union is looking for specific dollar amount increases.

Scott would not say what increases CUPE is demanding, other than to call them fair in light of inflation.

"You and I go to a grocery store and buy a loaf of bread or a litre of milk, the cost is going up all around us, all the time," said Scott. "We just want what's fair to us and our members.

"Our members deserve a little bit of respect."

Health and safety

While salary is a major stumbling block, the union also wants better health and safety language in the contract in order to better protect members from the students they are trying to help. Before the start of this school year, the union released a violence in the workplace survey that detailed classroom violence against support workers.

Although most of the CUPE locals were able to reach a deal with the Houston government in April 2023, that contract expired a year later. Support staff in the Halifax area rejected that offer and were off the job for more than a month before reaching an agreement near the end of the 2022-23 school year.

In October, members of the eight CUPE locals voted 94 per cent in favour of a strike.

CBC News requested an interview with John Lohr, the minister responsible for labour relations in the province. In response, a spokesperson sent a brief statement saying the "government is committed to the collective bargaining process" and touting the labour settlements that have been reached since the Houston government's first mandate.

An interview was also requested with the new minister of education, Brendan Maguire. No one immediately responded to that request.