Striking school support staff make ‘such a difference,’ says parent

Education support workers strike outside Elder Dr. Francis Whiskeyjack School in southeast Edmonton on Jan. 15, 2025. (Evan Klippenstein)

An Edmonton parent says every day the demands of striking school support workers are not met has a negative impact on her son with special needs.

Shannon Epler on Wednesday joined public school education assistants (EAs), cafeteria workers, administration staff and more on the picket line at Elder Dr. Francis Whiskeyjack School in southeast Edmonton in solidarity, telling CTV News Edmonton it was “literally the least we can do.”

She told CTV News Edmonton her 12-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, has received educational support since he was three years old.

She credits much of his growth to the professionals helping in his classrooms.

“We have seen the gains that he has made because of the EA support and because of them advocating to our admin for him,” Epler said.

“They have made such a difference in his life, from his toileting to being able to tell us what he wants every day.”

The mother said it takes several weeks for her son to adjust to a new routine, so the longer he is out of school, the longer it will be until he reaches another milestone.

“The fact that they’re still dilly dallying about giving the workers what they want is just gross,” Epler said.

The union is demanding what it characterized as a liveable wage. The average education support worker in Alberta earns $34,500, according to CUPE Local 3550.

The Edmonton Public Schools Board says it has tried to reach a deal with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), but has put everything it can on the table. It offered workers a 2.75-per cent raise, retroactive to 2020.

Since the strikes across the Edmonton public and Sturgeon public school divisions started on Monday, schools have remained open with some programs and services, such as the cafeteria, disrupted.

Breagha Trottier, a parent of a special needs child whose first of two jobs is as an EA with the rural division, said it was hard to be out of the classroom.

“But it’s so hard with the low wages. It’s hard to support our family.”

She echoed Epler’s commendation of school support staff.

“He loves school. He’s learned so much and he’s grown so much over the last three years that he’s been going,” Trottier said of her five-year-old son.

“I wouldn’t – and he wouldn’t – be the person I am without these workers.”

The Alberta Federation of Labour has accused the provincial government of underfunding the school system.

The province says an independent dispute inquiries board and an independent mediator both recommended pay increases between 2.75 per cent and 3.25 per cent and CUPE is being misleading, as the union has accepted similar offers for thousands of other support workers.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Klippenstein and The Canadian Press