Calgary school support staff back strike action​on February 12, 2025 at 1:29 pm

Two union locals representing education support staff in Calgary have voted to take job action.

Those workers could be off the job by next week, joining thousands of their Alberta colleagues on picket lines, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said in a release Wednesday.

CUPE Local 40, representing 800 custodial and maintenance staff with the Calgary Board of Education, voted 94.5 per cent  in support over the two-day vote, the union said Wednesday.

Another 350 members of Local 520 in the Calgary Catholic School District voted 94 per cent in support.

Members of CUPE locals in the Foothills (82 per cent), Parkland (91 per cent) and Black Gold (91 per cent) school divisions all back job action.

The five union locals represent more than 2,300 employees.

CUPE said 72 hours notice will be issued to school districts before any job action begins.

Over 4,000 education support staff have been on strike over wages and funding concerns in the Edmonton region and Fort McMurray since the start of January.

“We’ve been telling the government that if they don’t address the funding problems in our classrooms, the strikes will expand,” CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill said in a statement.

The union has argued Alberta has the lowest per-student funding in Canada.

CUPE Local 40 members comprise about five per cent of the CBE’s workforce,  including custodians, facility operators, heavy-duty mechanics, locksmiths and grounds maintenance staff.