Fort McMurray education workers serve 72-hour strike notice over wages
Education workers represented by two unions in Fort McMurray have served a 72-hour strike to the Catholic and public school divisions.
Workers represented by CUPE Locals 2545 and 2559 will start picketing at 7:45 a.m. near Dr. K.A. Clark Public School and Lady of Rivers Catholic School on Nov. 13, according to a news release.
The workers will be picketing on Nov. 14 as well but at a different location that hasn’t been disclosed yet. The union says starting Nov. 18, picketing will start rotating through different schools with a new location daily.
The public school district delivered a lockout vote notice to CUPE Local 2545, representing 300 members, hours before the strike notice was served. Friday afternoon, the Alberta Labour Relations Board approved the public school division’s lockout vote.
A lockout notice had not been served as of Monday morning. The board would have to provide 72 hours notice of a lockout.
The Alberta Labour Relations Board says while employees are not working or entitled to pay during a lockout, they are still considered employees and can’t be terminated.
One week ago support staff voted on recommendations proposed by the Disputes Inquiry Board. CUPE Local 2545 president Lymm Fleet says members haven't had a raise in almost 10 years and the recommendations would leave many members “below the poverty line.”
Fleet is urging parents, supporters and the community in Fort McMurray to contact the public school board trustees to encourage them to vote against a lockout.
“The rolling strikes will no doubt create a disruption for families. However, rolling strikes also mean that our most vulnerable students won’t fall behind,” said CUPE Local 2559 president Danielle Danis.
“They will still get socialization, education, and care on the days we are not picketing. A lockout would rob children of the services they need for an undetermined length of time. This would be chaotic for families.”
Correction
A previous version of this story stated the public school district provided a lockout notice to the union. In fact, the district provided notice of a lockout vote.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
LIVE AT 11 ET Trudeau to announce temporary GST relief on select items heading into holidays
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce a two-month GST relief on select items heading into holidays to address affordability issues, sources confirm to CTV News.
'Ding-dong-ditch' prank leads to kidnapping, assault charges for Que. couple
A Saint-Sauveur couple was back in court on Wednesday, accused of attacking a teenager over a prank.
Border agency detained dozens of 'forced labour' cargo shipments. Now it's being sued
Canada's border agency says it has detained about 50 shipments of cargo over suspicions they were products of forced labour under rules introduced in 2020 — but only one was eventually determined to be in breach of the ban.
2 boys drowned and a deception that gripped the nation: Why the Susan Smith case is still intensely felt 30 years later
Inside Susan Smith’s car pulled from the bottom of a South Carolina lake in 1994 were the bodies of her two young boys, still strapped in their car seats, along with her wedding dress and photo album. Here's how the case unfolded.
Genetic evidence backs up COVID-19 origin theory that pandemic started in seafood market
A group of researchers say they have more evidence to suggest the COVID-19 pandemic started in a Chinese seafood market where it spread from infected animals to humans. The evidence is laid out in a recent study published in Cell, a scientific journal, nearly five years after the first known COVID-19 outbreak.
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas officials
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister and Hamas officials, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their 13-month war in Gaza and the October 2023 attack on Israel respectively.
REVIEW 'Gladiator II' review: Come see a man fight a monkey; stay for Denzel's devious villain
CTV film critic Richard Crouse says the follow-up to Best Picture Oscar winner 'Gladiator' is long on spectacle, but short on soul.
Alabama to use nitrogen gas to execute man for 1994 slaying of hitchhiker
An Alabama prisoner convicted of the 1994 murder of a female hitchhiker is slated Thursday to become the third person executed by nitrogen gas.
This is how much money you need to make to buy a house in Canada's largest cities
The average salary needed to buy a home keeps inching down in cities across Canada, according to the latest data.