BGSD employees return to work after nearly month long strike

LEDUC COUNTY -- After nearly a month of job action, support staff with the Black Gold School Division are back at work. 

This comes as CUPE Local 3484 -- which represents support staff with the BGSD including educational assistants, librarians and computer technicians and more -- officially ratified their new contract agreement with the Division on the evening of March 19th. The ratification marked the end of the nearly month-long strike that kicked off on February 24th.

Prior to this week's new agreement, the last deal reached between CUPE and the BGSD came in June of 2024. Though negotiations on a new agreement had taken place earlier this year, it wasn't enough to prevent strike notice from being issued by the union in February.

While the Division noted that some of the union’s outstanding issues were addressed during early talks, the two sides remained far apart on monetary items. Speaking to the One, CUPE representative Lou Arab talked about the new agreement now in place.

"The contract goes until the end of the 2027-2028 school year," said Arab. "With regards to the wage package -- we're not releasing all the details until all the Locals have ratified." 

The spokesperson did confirm however that the wage increase included in the new deal is higher than the government's mandate of three percent per year. He also notes the sense of relief felt by the CUPE 3484 membership as the strike finally comes to a conclusion.

"There's a wide range of emotions amongst our members," said Arab. "There's a lot of relief to be off the picket lines, there's a lot of satisfaction because they were able to break the government's mandate, and win a wage package that was better than what was offered at the beginning of the strike."

Meantime, the Black Gold School Division issued a statement following the new contract ratification on Wednesday evening. BGSD Superintendent Michael Borgfjord says schools are now in the process of returning to regular operations.

"There has been a tremendous amount of disruption for our students, families, and staff," said Borgfjord in the statement. "We continue to ask for your patience as we reintegrate all staff and students back into our schools. As the labour action has ended suddenly, schools will require some time to ensure proper programming."

During the strike, many students were moved to full-time and part-time at-home learning while many school programs were disrupted. In addition, many schools saw adjusted teaching schedules to maximize available staff, personnel reassignments, and combined classes. The BGSD notes that the job action affected at least 500 employees division-wide.