The Alberta government and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are in a heated dispute over contract negotiations for education support workers, with each side accusing the other of interfering in the bargaining process.
Alberta’s Finance Minister Nate Horner and Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides released a statement criticizing CUPE’s national leadership for what they called “tactics of fear and intimidation” in negotiations between school boards and local unions. They alleged that CUPE National had intervened in local bargaining by deregistering a Medicine Hat local to prevent a ratification vote, blocking school buses in Sturgeon School Division, and pressuring a nursing agency to withdraw services from medically fragile students in Edmonton.
“This pattern of behaviour is disturbing and shows that education support workers who do not yet have a deal will not be permitted to vote on one, under fear of deregistration by union leaders in Ontario,” Horner and Nicolaides said in the statement. They called on CUPE to allow local bargaining to continue “so that kids can be back in school getting the care and education they deserve.”
In response, CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill rejected the government’s claims, calling them “falsehoods and baseless attacks.” He said CUPE National placed its Medicine Hat local under administration for reasons unrelated to bargaining, meaning the agreement signed with the school district was not valid.
Gill also disputed the government’s claim that an injunction was issued against CUPE to prevent picketing in Sturgeon School Division, saying the union and the district had reached an agreement that picketing would not delay school buses. He added that the nursing agency in Edmonton withdrew its services after learning it would be replacing striking workers, not due to union pressure.
“The timing of the UCP attack is to draw attention away from five strike votes happening right now and recent polling data showing UCP supporters don’t even side with the government when it comes to the strike and education issues,” Gill said.
The dispute comes amid ongoing tensions over education funding and staffing levels in Alberta’s public schools. CUPE has criticized the government’s approach, saying Alberta has the lowest per-capita education funding in Canada, while the province insists it is committed to fair bargaining.
