Foothills School Division education workers will rally in Okotoks alongside fellow union members across the province.
CUPE Local 5040 will be holding a rally on Saturday, Sept. 21 opposite the Esso gas station on Southridge Drive, by the Foothills Composite High School parking lot, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The rally, part of CUPE’s education day of action across Alberta, comes after the Foothills union struck a new deal with the Foothills School Division — the contract, which was reached Aug. 22, expired on Aug. 31, four days after it was ratified on Aug. 27.
The new deal between the education workers and their employer saw education assistants get an eight per cent raise while all other support staff got the 2.75 per cent increase mandated by the government.
"Next round is different," said Local 5040 president Lesley Cole. "We will be fighting for more... there will be more proposals, things that we didn't get to."
The agreement had concluded four years of bargaining between the union and employer, during which time a contract was not in place, with retroactive pay starting from Sept. 1, 2023.
"Money is always top priority because we are way behind,” Cole said. “When you compare our wages to the rest of Alberta, we need a pay raise. Lots of people haven't had a pay raise since 2018, and then it was pennies.”
The upcoming rally will be similar to a previous one held by CUPE Local 5040 in the same location on April 13 — according to organizers, about 120 people of all ages from Okotoks, High River, Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Pincher Creek and other municipalities were at that rally.
"Life is getting super expensive right now," said vice-president Bernadette De Bruin. "And we just can't hold the jobs we love, and we don't think that's fair."
CUPE’s rallies in Okotoks and across Alberta follow a similar series of province-wide rallies by AUPE, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, earlier in September.
