To our fellow CUPE school support staff in Nova Scotia: We know folks have been looking for an update on the progress of bargaining after we announced our strong strike mandate in October. As you all know, Premier Tim Houston called a provincial election just days after that announcement. A few days later, we were informed by the HRCE and the SRCE that the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development ordered all bargaining dates scheduled before the election to be cancelled. Please see our public statement on bargaining being cancelled here. What’s next? At this point, almost all our eight locals have filed for conciliation. No conciliation meeting dates have been scheduled before the election either, but you can see the list of scheduled dates below. Local 964 – December 3 Local 4682 – December 11 Local 5047 – December 13 Local 5050 – December 17 Local 3890 – … Read more…

***Op-ed originally published in The Chronicle Herald on Friday, November 15, 2024*** Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past for Nova Scotia, the best education a person could hope for was learning to read and learning basic arithmetic in a one-room schoolhouse, with kids of all ages and learning levels and one (probably overworked) teacher. But that’s not the reality we live in anymore. As the physical space of schools have expanded, so has the team that ensures a healthy and successful learning environment. Nowadays, pretty much anyone you know who completed their primary and secondary education in Nova Scotia’s public schools would have done so in a building with hundreds (or thousands) of students, and hundreds of workers who educate, support and care for our kids. Picture that one-room schoolhouse in your mind. Now imagine it expanding. With every new classroom, with library, computer lab, and specialized space, … Read more…