More than 2,400 members of CUPE 728 took strike action November 23 to back demands for a fair settlement from the Surrey School Board. Picket lines were set up at all schools and board offices except Surrey Memorial Hospital where a group of members teach in a rehab program. The maintenance, clerical and janitorial workers, bus drivers, special needs assistants and lunchtime attendants have been attempting to reach an agreement for nearly a year. The employer has been intransigent, demanding concessions that threaten job security and reduce hours. More than 100 items remain to be settled. The Surrey school board is renown for its attempts to ban books from the elementary curriculum, then spending nearly $1 million fighting a ruling in BC’s courts that struck down, as discriminatory, the board’s decision.
