Close to 1,000 school support workers from the South Shore Regional Centre for Education and the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education are currently on strike.

The support workers are represented by NSGEU who are trying to negotiate a new deal that would take compensation for the workers more closely in line with their colleagues in other parts of the province.

“Our members are the glue that holds schools together,” says Sandra Mullen, President of the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union (NSGEU). “They have been supporting the system throughout the pandemic and care deeply about the work they do and the students they support. It is time that the government and the employer show them how much they care about the work they do and the services they provide and come to the table with necessary improvements.”.

School support staff in Bridgewater, NS are striking for improved wages. Photo: Evan Taylor

Currently, people who do the same jobs are paid differently depending on which Centre for Education they work for in the province.

Stacy Jenson, one of those protesting in Bridgewater says that workers in places like the South Shore and Valley don’t deserve to be paid any less just because they live in rural areas. “We just want respect for the work we do which is the same work people are being paid more to do in places elsewhere in the province,”.

In the few days that the strike has been going on Jenson says they have only had positive responses from people passing by.

Protestors in Bridgewater were hopeful that Education Minister Becky Druhan would drop by as the strike is happening in her riding but as of Wednesday afternoon she had not made an appearance.