Hundreds of custodial workers gathered in front of the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District offices on Monday morning, calling on the provincial government to increase funding for public education.

According to a news release from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, around 800 employees at the CBE and 350 employees at the CCSD went on strike after 72-hour strike notices were issued on Wednesday. Feb. 19.

The strikes come after an overwhelming majority voted earlier this month in favour of job action. It follows strikes in Edmonton and Fort McMurray that have been ongoing since January. Around 400 employees of the Parkland School Division also started limited job action on Tuesday, Feb. 18.

CUPE has repeatedly said custodial workers and education support workers across the province are facing a wage crisis, and they have been left with no other options but to strike.

Henry Hernandez has been a custodial worker for the CCSD for 16 years. He called the minimal wage increases over the years “insulting” especially during a cost of living crisis.

“[Custodial workers] are very hard-working. They are extending their hours just to clean the washrooms, protect the kids and protect the staff,” he told LWC.

Hernandez also called on the provincial government to provide more resources to public schools. Alberta’s public schools are the least funded public school system in Canada and the province’s education sector has been deprived of the funding that is desperately needed, he said.

“We are here for the kids. The government needs to step up and bring the resources to where it is really needed,” he said.

“When the government told us they couldn’t give us a raise because they didn’t have money, we support the government. But this time, we cannot support this … It’s a shame. We have the money, and yet we cannot provide it to Albertans. This is the time when we, all of us in the education sector, will go out and force the government to do what is right for us.”

Clay Gordon, president of CUPE Local 40, has been working for the CBE for 10 years. He told custodial workers at the district got an increase last year, the first increase in 10 years. However, the increase was minimal because of inflation.

Custodial workers and maintenance workers keep schools clean and safe and play important roles in classrooms, he added.

“Our purchasing power has disappeared. We are trying to get our members a living wage,” Gordon told LWC.

“We’re going to strike and we are going to fight until the Alberta government increases funding for public education, which will rectify the lower wages and the understaffing.”

Negotiations have gone poorly: CUPE Alberta

Both Gordon and Hernandez said the unions will strike until public education funding has increased and both school boards can pay livable wages to custodial employees.

However, Gordon said CUPE Local 40’s bargaining team has reached an impasse with the CBE and the province. The union is heading back to the table on March 10 for formal mediation.

“We’ve made it clear that we’re open to come to the table anytime,” Gordon said.

“The government of Alberta can solve this situation immediately just by increasing funding to public education.”

Rory Gill, CUPE Alberta president, said Local 40 and Local 520 (which represents custodial workers at the CCSD) have been negotiating for fair wages and working conditions for years. However, the provincial government has limited the district’s ability to bargain with the union freely, he said.

“Every time our locals go to the table with the school divisions that they work with, they’re told, ‘No, we’ve got a mandate. We can’t go beyond it. We can’t even admit we have a mandate, but we can’t bargain freely. You have to take what we’re setting out,'” Gill told LWC.

“That’s not how bargaining works. This government has put artificial caps, secret caps, on spending and funding within this province. They need to be called out. They need to lift them, and then we can get back to free collective bargaining and get these folks back to work.”

Gill said many custodial workers must work multiple jobs to pay for basic necessities like rent, groceries and transportation. Many also have families of their own.

“Schools need to be clean, safe and set, ready to learn. These are the folks who make that happen, and they do it under incredible pressure from their employers. Some of these workers are told they should be able to clean the classroom in seven minutes. And I don’t know about you, but I remember my classroom, and it would take a lot longer, in seven minutes when I was in Grade Five,” he said.

“We’re going to see degradations to cleanliness, degradations to safety. We don’t believe the school should be open without these folks. The employer disagrees, but I think it’s going to be very clear very quickly how important they are to public education.”