The president of CUPE Nova Scotia says the provincial government appears to be against supporting education workers.

The comment from Nan McFadgen comes after a statement from the province to our newsroom, Wednesday, in response to the union’s media release urging the government to keep negotiating with school support workers.

The two sides are in conciliation talks, but according to CUPE, are heading toward an impasse.

In the statement, the province on behalf of Labour Relations says the “government is committed to the collective bargaining process” which they say they have demonstrated with “over 300 settlements since 2021.”

However, McFadgen tells our newsroom even though that is an “awesome statement”, life is a lot more expensive now than that it was four years ago.

“So, I would ask the government…2021 and 2025…are they the same? I’m going to go with no. So, they need to re-evaluate their wage mandate because a loaf of bread in 2021 sure as hell does not cost the same as 2025.”

McFadgen says the province has implemented a wage mandate so employers can’t discuss pay, throwing the whole point of negotiating out the window.

“I define bargaining as…you and I sit down…there’s a pile in the middle and we’re discussing what we’re okay to leave there and what we’re okay to take away in the back and forth with the wages.”

She says the union is not interested in the province dictating what their wages will be.

New education minister

Brendan Maguire is the new Minister of Education but, McFadgen says, he is “hot off the press” only having assumed the role since the provincial election in November.

So, she says, he has not yet been part of any discussions, but it will be interesting to see what he thinks.

“He [Maguire] was certainly supportive of education workers when he was in the opposition. It should be interesting to see how he feels about things now. I would think he’s still a supporter… I mean, how could that change?”

McFadgen adds, the union is confident Maguire will still offer support and do the work needed to be done for their membership.

Macguire crossed the floor from the Liberals to the Conservatives in February of last year.

Next steps

All eight locals are in negotiations across the province representing more than 5,000 members but according to McFadgen, are not making any progress.

She says hopefully the government will start to see the value of school support workers.

“So hopefully, now that we’ve got this shiny super majority government, they’ll look at education workers and have an epiphany and see their value. If that happens, that’ll be great. If not, we’ll just keep travelling down the road heading toward an impasse.”

Their contract ended in March 2024.