During the last week of February, all three CUPE Locals with Edmonton Public Schools entered into unprecedented discussions with EPS administration. The CUPE Locals represent over 3000 district workers who work in custodial (474), maintenance (784), and support staff (3550).
With Alberta’s hot labour market, the district has been hard-pressed to fill positions for custodial, maintenance and support staff. The CUPE locals opened discussions with the district to address this staffing crisis.
On March 1st, the locals and Edmonton Public School administration came to an agreement on a new wage and benefits package in order to both attract and retain workers. As of March 1, 2008 all custodial, maintenance and support staff will see their wages increased by $1 per hour. An annual Cost Of Living increase was also agreed to that will see increases to hourly wages, and benefits occurring September 1 2008, September 1 2009 and September 1 2010, based on the Average Weekly Wage Earnings (AWWE) in Alberta.
The three collective agreements end August 31, 2011. For the next three years, the annual increases will be based on the previous year’s Average Weekly Wage Earnings (AWWE) in Alberta. It is a formula based on wage increases in both the public and private sector weighted against the cost of inflation. The Average Weekly Wage Earnings (AWWE) in Alberta last year was 5%, the highest in Canada.
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For further information contact: Doug Luellman – Custodial Cellular: (780) 446-5688 John Marler - Maintenance Cellular: (780) 983-4539 Trudy Grebenstein – Support Staff Cellular: (780) 914-8673