Hundreds of striking tutoring workers walked in the streets of the city center of Edmonton until Alberta legislature on budget day and stood outside, waving panels, blowing horns and demanding higher wages.
“We will not be silenced,” sang some demonstrators on Thursday while their children were sitting on their shoulders or played in the snow.
Within the Legislative Assembly, the Minister of Finance Nate Horner delivered the details of the 2025 spending plan.
About 6,000 workers, educational assistants to cafeteria staff, have been on the picking lines through Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray for about six weeks to fight for higher wages.
THE Canadian Union of Public Employees said that education support workers in Alberta, who earn less than $ 35,000 per year on average, hoped that the province would intervene to resolve the salary dispute.
“This government must understand that public education approaches the disaster,” UPE Alberta president Rory Gill told journalists.
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“I spoke to a lady last year who worked four jobs.”
The Alberta Education supports staff and the members of the CUPE protest before the Alberta legislature in Edmonton while the provincial budget was deposited inside on Thursday, February 27, 2025.
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He said that the government’s commitment to hire 4,000 support workers in Thursday’s budget does not make sense.
“They can hire a million people if they wish, but unless wages are there, no one will take these jobs,” he said.
He said that before the start of the strike, the vacancy among support workers was 10% in certain school divisions “because wages were so low”.
Horner, addressing journalists, said that he wanted to balance fair wages while remaining in the parameters of agreements with other public sector workers.
“I simply say that it is important to us that the whole public service is paid fairly,” he said.
Last week, a judge ordered the government to reverse its decision to exempt schools to provide learning in person to students with complex needs during the strike.
A group of parents and tutors said that more than 3,700 children were victims of discrimination by not being entitled to person prices.
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