Strike ends as Hanover School Division educational assistants ratify deal
Union calls on NDP to provide better funding to school divisions
Educational assistants in the Hanover School Division in southeastern Manitoba have ratified a new collective agreement, putting an end to a month-long strike.
The EAs voted 83.1 per cent in favour of the new four-year contract, their union, the Christian Labour Association of Canada, said in a news release posted on its website. They first hit the picket lines on Nov. 1.
The union did not say how many of the approximately 300 EAs cast ballots in the ratification vote, which was held through the day Wednesday.
Both the union and the school division posted on their websites that the educational assistants would be back on the job on Thursday.
The new contract includes an immediate wage increase of 6.3 per cent, much of it retroactive, Geoff Dueck Thiessen, CLAC Winnipeg regional director, said in the union news release.
The most senior EAs will get wage increases of more than $2 per hour in 2024, and the education premium increases 42 per cent over the life of the agreement, including an immediate 21 per cent increase, Dueck Thiessen said.
In addition, EAs will no longer lose work days due to unpredictable school closures and will receive significant improvements in sick days provisions, he said.
The new agreement is a big step in the right direction, but the work isn't done and will resume when the contract expires in 2026, Dueck Thiessen said.
"These wage adjustments, while significant, still need work in our next round of bargaining in three years to get to a wage that fully compensates these folks for the valuable work they do," he said in the release.
Some of that has to come from better government funding, he said, calling it a message to the new NDP administration.
The last provincial government limited school division taxation but didn't provide enough funding to replace the loss, and the current government has been silent throughout the strike, he said.
The education system is under immense strain and being held together by an army of front-line workers who often need to perform more than one job, and their passion keeps the system running behind the scenes, Dueck Thiessen said.
The Hanover School Division, in its news release, said it looks forward to welcoming back the EAs and thanked parents of students in the system for their patience.