{"id":123247,"date":"2022-10-25T07:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=123247"},"modified":"2022-10-25T10:41:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T14:41:07","slug":"south-shore-school-workers-on-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/south-shore-school-workers-on-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"South Shore school workers on strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

School workers on the South Shore will walk a picket line Tuesday as they strike for equal pay.<\/p>\n

The South Shore Regional Center for Education issued a statement informing parents schools will remain open for grade primary to 12 students, but because Early Childhood Educators won\u2019t be in the classroom the pre-primary program will not be offered.<\/p>\n

Members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) Local 70 including Early Childhood Educators; Outreach Workers, Student Support Workers, Office Administration Assistants; Clerks and IT Support Specialists voted with a 92 per cent majority to reject the latest contract offer from the South Shore Regional Centre for Education.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re reportedly unhappy people who do the same jobs are paid differently, depending on which Centre for Education they work for in the province.<\/p>\n

Across Nova Scotia, each of the seven Regional Centres and the French school board negotiate their own contracts with their employees.<\/p>\n

NSGEU president Sandra Mullen says it doesn\u2019t make sense to have separate contracts with different rates of compensation when the money is coming from one source: the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one department and it should be the same wage across,\u201d said Mullen. \u201c And, you know, we have government on record saying they want to get there too. So, now\u2019s the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Shore Regional Centre for Education Executive Director Paul Ash says the Regional Centre will do its best to get people into key positions to minimize the disruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, when you lose 160 individuals as a result of an impending strike action, we won\u2019t have the same number of resources available but our first and primary goal is to focus on continuing to support the needs of our students,\u201d said Ash.<\/p>\n

He says since the days of the old school boards, each region has negotiated contracts with their own employees.<\/p>\n

Ash believes a fair offer was made to the Local to stave off a strike and says steps are being prepared to provide parity across all school districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a plan to conduct a comprehensive review of all the jobs within all the entities and then align that compensation across the province,\u201d said Ash. \u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019re not at a point where that is happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the seven regional centres, NSGEU represents five, including Tri-County, South Shore, Annapolis Valley, Chignecto-Central and Halifax.<\/p>\n

\"Two

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen (left) on the picket line with an Annapolis Valley worker October 24, 2022. Photo courtesy NSGEU<\/p><\/div>\n

NSGEU President Mullen says she\u2019d like to see the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development take a more prominent role in negotiations to ensure parity across all regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not sitting in the room when we negotiate, but I\u2019m sure they\u2019re behind the curtain,\u201d said Mullen.<\/p>\n

The South Shore is the second local to strike after NSGEU members in Annapolis Valley already walked off the job Monday. Mullen says her members would rather be in school doing what they love instead of walking a picket line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the heartbreaking part of all this. It is not the children or the school administrator they\u2019re upset with. It is government,\u201d said Mullen. \u201cAnd it\u2019s government who can make this right.\u201d<\/p>\n

E-mail:\u00a0edhalversonnews@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nTwitter: @edwardhalverson<\/strong><\/p>\n

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School workers on the South Shore will walk a picket line Tuesday as they strike for equal pay. The South Shore Regional Center for Education issued a statement informing parents schools will remain open for grade primary to 12 students, but because Early Childhood Educators won\u2019t be in the classroom the pre-primary program will not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":123252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,221,225],"tags":[13666,19954,19955,8260,19956,11745,8453],"radio":[9850],"origine":[274,279,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123266,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123247\/revisions\/123266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123247"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=123247"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=123247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}