Support Staff Workers Wrap Up Negotiations with Unions Post BCTF Strike

The final details regarding the teachers' strike are being implemented and the issue is coming to a close. All districts and unions representing education support staff that signed on under the provincial framework agreement negotiated this summer now have ratified agreements in place.

The final seven districts and nearly 3,500 support staff workers recently ratified agreements under the B.C. government’s 2014 Economic Stability Mandate.

The seven school districts are:

• SD 08 (Kootenay Lake) – 409 support staff workers (CUPE Local 409)

• SD 39 (Vancouver) – 177 support staff workers (Vancouver Trades Council)

• SD 43 (Coquitlam) – 1,526 support staff workers (CUPE Local 561)

• SD 46 (Sunshine Coast) – 228 support staff workers (CUPE Local 801)

• SD 49 (Central Coast) – 56 support staff workers (Non-Teaching Staff Association)

• SD 59 (Peace River South) – 200 support staff workers (Teamsters Local 31)

• SD 61 (Greater Victoria) – 893 support staff workers (CUPE Local 947

What this means is that more than 33,000 support staff workers—or approximately 97 per cent of the total support staff workers in B.C.—have fully ratified agreements in place. The only other union that is still at the negotiation table is Teamsters Local 31. They have yet to reach an agreement with school district 34, Abbotsford.

Within 30 days of ratification of a new collective agreement by a board of education, employees will be reimbursed for all scheduled hours that were not otherwise paid for during the BCTF strike.

The new term of agreement for each district will run fro July 1st, 2014 until June 30th, 2019. Details of the agreement include a 5.5 per cent wage increase over the five years of the term, along with potential for additional increases if the B.C. economy exceeds the annual forecasts set by the Economic Forecast Council during the last four years of the agreement.