Now that a deal between unionized school support staff and the provincial government has been done, June Kaiser is waiting for the other shoe to drop - namely where the money will come from to pay for the agreed upon wage increase.
Kaiser, president of CUPE Local 716, which represents about 1,000 workers in the Richmond School District, said she is hoping the 3.5 per cent bump her members have been promised over two years will not come at the expense of jobs locally.
"We are really hoping they (Richmond School District) will look elsewhere other than the frontline workers who support children in the classrooms," she said.
Under the agreement reached last week, local districts are being told to come up with the money to fund the wage increase.
"Time and time again we have been the ones who have been cut," Kaiser said "And we are bare bones now. They need to look elsewhere other than CUPE jobs."
Kaiser added she was relieved the union was able to strike a deal that did not make concessions to roll back unionized workers' sick leave benefits. Plus, a provision that allows instant drug payment benefits will go a long way for workers, many of whom earn $19 an hour for custodial staff to $24.43 for education assistants.
CUPE has until Dec. 20 to ratify the deal. A local vote is expected in November.
But jobs are expected to be cut to fund a portion of the wage increase, said Richmond School Board Chairperson Donna Sargent.
Exactly how many and who's jobs will be lost, Sargent said she could not say as staff are working on how much the contract increase will cost and then determine how to foot the bill.
Tapping into Richmond's $6.1 million surplus, accumulated over a number of years, is also part of the plan. "It's not ideal," Sargent said, adding the provision granted by the province for districts to also dip into their capital budgets to fund one year of the two-year CUPE deal is, "stepping into very dangerous territory. We have so little capital funding already."
A decision on just where the jobs will be cut is expected to be made public at the district's board meeting on Oct. 5.
