In Saskatchewan, CUPE represents approximately 4,600 school board support staff who are organized in 56 separate CUPE locals and working in 51 different school divisions in the province. Because of the high number of bargaining units and collective agreements in this sector, the Education Workers’ Steering Committee felt it would be useful to track the successes and trends in bargaining on an annual basis. This Bargaining Achievements report summarizes the settlements and can be used as a resource to those school board locals who are preparing for their next round of bargaining.
This year’s report summarizes 28 school board settlements that were reached between October 2002 and September 2003. Last year’s report reviewed only 12 school board settlements.
The information in this report is based on the settlement reports prepared by the staff representative for each school board local. CUPE’s research representative supplemented that information by discussing details with the staff representative and by referring to the language in the current and previous collective agreements.
Section I of this report provides an overview of negotiated wage settlements in the province. In past reports we summarized major public sector settlements but in the past year there have not been any major provincial settlements, apart from the pay equity negotiations in the health care sector with CUPE, SGEU and SEIU.
Section II of the report discusses the wage settlements of CUPE Locals in the school board sector and summarizes the major trends and achievements in bargaining. Section III highlights specific gains in premium pay, pensions and benefits, vacation, leaves of absence, job security and other language.
The appendices at the end of this report list the locals whose wage settlements were reviewed for this report, locals currently in bargaining, locals whose collective agreement expires at the end of 2003, and an historical review of the Consumer Price Index.
