A salute to the striking Halifax education workers who, along with support group HRM Supports Education Workers, picketed 1488 Main Road in Eastern Passage, MLA Barb Adams’ constituency office last week.  They demanded accountability from Adams, who is also the government’s minister for Seniors and Long-Term Care.  She refused to show up at her office to talk with members of HRM Supports Education Workers, and instead drove right past them.  Adams said she was “comfortable” with the strikers’ poverty wages.   She has since blocked members of HRM Supports Education Workers from all her social media. 

Tory Cabinet Minister MLA Barb Adams, said she was “comfortable” with the striking workers’ poverty wages

HRM Supports Education Workers

And today, a little salute goes out to Adams’ boss, Premier Tim Houston.  As an accountant, or beancounter supreme, he is well aware that the government will save more than $10 million of the NS education budget in salaries unpaid if his government continues to refuse to bargain with the workers’ union CUPE.  CUPE represents 1800 people currently on strike.  They include early childhood educators (ECEs), educational program assistants (EPAs), child and youth care workers, SchoolsPlus outreach workers, Mi’kmaw and Indigenous student support workers, African Nova Scotian support workers, school library specialists, assistive technology support workers, and various support workers at schools in the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP).

In April, CUPE recommended acceptance of the tentative collective agreement, which would have seen a wage increase  of 6.5% over three years.  The agreement had been accepted by the other CUPE support staff locals in NS.  But Local 5047 members employed by  the Halifax Regional Centre for Education Centre (HRCE),  rejected it, and decided to strike for a better deal.  As local 5047 president Chris Melanson said, “Our members were clear that this offer does not address their needs. We’re ready and willing to come back to the table to avert a strike if government has something better to offer. At this point, the ball is in their court, and they’re on the clock.”

If Houston  can drag the dispute out to the end of June, he will not need the education workers back to work until September. Depriving children with special needs with educational support, the Premier is willing to hang more than 600 children in HRM with serious disabilities and/or special needs out to dry.  Houston shows little interest in them or their education.  The following explains it.

In 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) handed down a landmark decision on disability rights. The decision states that students with disabilities are entitled to receive the accommodation measures they need to access and benefit from the service of public education.

Inclusive Education Canada

First, Houston doesn’t recognize the 2012 Supreme Court of Canada decision that “children and families must be ensured of their right to the benefits of public education in an inclusive community or neighbourhood school.” Houston prefers to blame the union and its members for denying children their education. studessnts

But it gets worse. The Houston government has hired MaxSys, which calls itself “Canada’s Premier Staffing and Recruitment Firm”, to furnish HRM schools with strikebreakers or scabs. The scabs have been hired to work as EPAs (educational program  assistants) for some but not all of the 600 children in need.  At least 20 casual employees have already been hired to cross the picket lines and help some children with “lighter” needs. 

Bear in mind that all the pre-primary students (four-year-olds) are shut out of school because their ECE teachers are members of the Local 5047 which is on strike. In addition, there are nearly 2800 children in HRM (out of 58,000 in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education– HRCE) who rely on special services and assistants provided by the schools.  For those children needing extra help, many parents have been asked to spend their days in the school with their child — filling in for the EPAs.   However HRCE has told the parents of the 600 most seriously disabled students who need the intensive help of EPAs, to keep their children at home.  These parents have had to miss work, forego income, and somehow try to keep their children busy at home.  But for how long?

At the top of Houston’s mind is saving money

In HRM we have more than 1,000 homeless people, many tenting in parks, while almost all of the shelters are filled to capacity.  The Tory government doesn’t bother to try to fix it.  After all, as Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11), so as far as the government is concerned — what is the point of catering to them? 

Instead, a year ago, Premier Houston greenlighted nine new developments of track housing and apartment buildings around HRM.  This will allow 22,600 units of for-profit housing to be built by a consortium of up to 31 private developers— some of whom are friends of this government.  The average price of these new homes in the ‘burbs? $600-$700,000 each.  As former NDP leader Gary Burrill dryly summed it up, “We have here 22,600 units being announced and the total number of them that is designated as guaranteed affordable is zero.”

Since Houston is so interested in saving money, he sees a gold opportunity in the education workers’ strike.  On average these workers earn about $34,000 per year. They walked out on May 10, and have been on strike for nearly a month—17 school days.  Since the government refuses to go back to the bargaining table, it’s likely the striking workers will be out till the end of the school year – about 20 more school days.  

The provincial government hasn’t had to pay wages or benefits for a month and likely another month.  Two months of wages represent one-sixth of a year.  Based on an annual salary of $34,000, one sixth of a year works out to about $5666.  If you multiply $5666 by 1800 people on strike – well that’s the government saving of more than $10.2 million. 

True – the scabs also cost money – but not nearly what permanent professional educational workers cost. 

So this is all calculated. 

The Tory government is always trying to save money on the backs of the poorest – and the poorest paid – in the province.  Clearly the homeless crisis shows us this.  

Wage Parity: The lowest wage is the law according to Houston

Let’s get back to the 1800 strikers, who are mainly women, and often sole breadwinners in their families. The Houston government insists they must accept “wage parity”  — but wage parity with whom?  The government wants the strikers in HRM to accept what the education workers (mainly represented by NSGEU) in the Annapolis Valley and the South Shore (NSGEU locals 73 and 70 respectively) agreed to after a 10-day strike in the fall of 2022.  Those workers settled for a 1.5% increase dating back to 2021, another 1.5% in 2022, a 3% increase in 2023 and a 0.5% increase in 2024 – that is a fraction of the rate of inflation which stood at 5.9% from January 2022 to January 2023 alone.  

But in his successful bid to become premier in 2021, Tim Houston had vowed he would be more friendly toward labour.  Notably, he promised to repeal the dastardly Bill 148, that the Liberals –under former Premier Stephen McNeil –passed in 2015.  Bill 148 imposed a very limited wage package on tens of thousands of public sector workers in Nova Scotia.  As Linda MacNeil, (no relation to then-Premier McNeil), director for the union UNIFOR stated,

“We have support-service workers that have had their wages suppressed and it is currently still affecting the workforce because the wages haven’t kept up.  And when you don’t keep up with inflation, when you keep workers’ benefits down as far as their wages, of course it has an impact.”

Gary Burrill, then NS NDP leader said the Houston government urged the Houston government to rescind Bill 148. “What a powerful gesture it would be to rescind Bill 148. Regardless of …  its current legal relevance or irrelevance in the current situation.”

The Tory government has refused to rescind Bill 148. 

The Houston government didn’t tip its hat to National AccessAbility Week

This past weekend marked the end of National AccessAbility Week, seven days that celebrate the work of allies, organizations and communities  to remove barriers to persons with disabilities.    

Something tells me neither our Premier, nor many in the opposition’s ranks, decided to commemorate “the valuable contributions and leadership of persons with disabilities in Canada.” 

Without an education, nobody in NS — or indeed elsewhere in Canada– is going to lead or change anything.  This is especially true for all the children who have been prevented from attending school – potentially for the rest of the school year – because the Tory government is refusing to pay decent wages and benefits to their teachers and classroom caregivers now on strike.

Featured image above: On Strike (Twitter-CUPE5047)