Fort McMurray Public Resumes Talks with CUPE in Bid to End Support Staff Strike
FORT MCMURRAY, AB. — The Fort McMurray Public School Division (FMPSD) has resumed negotiations with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 2545, hoping to end a strike that has disrupted students’ education and left staff without pay for weeks.
Talks between the division and CUPE resumed Thursday for the first time since failed mediation efforts last fall. The public division has now tabled a new offer that includes a 13.75 per cent wage increase by 2028. Employees would receive an immediate 5.75 per cent raise, with a guaranteed additional eight percent increase in the future.
The offer also proposes a new wage grid that takes education and experience into account, a near doubling of shift differential rates, and an increase in vacation entitlement for first-year employees from zero to 10 days.
FMPSD claims that the vast majority of recent settlements in the education sector have resulted in wage increases between 2.5 and 3 per cent. “Ninety-nine per cent of public sector negotiations during the 2021-2024 settlement period, including 60 of 67 agreements within the education sector, settled within this range,” the division stated in a pointed letter to parents. “CUPE should explain why its members are going without pay when members of its other unions have already accepted and received these increases.”
The division also said that CUPE’s demand for a retroactive $6 per hour wage increase could cost the division $7.8 million and would require major staffing reductions. “[CUPE’s demand] equates to about 76 of our 404 teaching positions,” the division warned. “If CUPE continues to insist that its members live on strike pay while pursuing salary expectations that far exceed the division’s ability to pay, there has to be significant cuts in staffing.”
The school division has indicated a preference for a long-term agreement extending to 2028, citing concerns about economic uncertainty, particularly in the oil sands sector, as a reason for financial prudence.
UPDATE: CUPE responded with an official statement to Harvard Media News Thursday night, stating they are disappointed but not surprised the division is trying to negotiate in the public eye as opposed to at the bargaining table.
The statement goes on to say the division’s actions border on bargaining in bad faith, concluding by stating they encourage school boards to speak out against wage mandates and a lack of funding for public education from the provincial government.