‘Not asking for a lot’: Thousands of school support workers on strike in Edmonton area

Education support workers in Calgary picket for better pay on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (Logan Stein, CityNews image)

CALGARY, Alberta — Four groups of educational support workers will set up picket lines today and join existing strikes already in progress across Alberta.

The four groups include:

CUPE Local 40, 800 employees of the Calgary Board of Education.
CUPE Local 520, 350 employees of the Calgary Catholic School Division.
CUPE Local 3484, 570 employees of Black Gold School Division.
CUPE Local 5040, 300 employees of Foothills School Division.

These workers join over 4,000 others on strikes in Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Sturgeon County. A further 400 workers at Parkland School Division are engaging in ‘work-to-rule’ actions.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill says his members are tired of poverty-level wages and low funding levels for education. Alberta has the lowest education funding of any province in Canada. The average school support worker in the province makes just $34,500 per year.

Read full article from the Vancouver Sun here.