The Moment Manitoba EAs Finally Said, Enough!
After 20 years of low wages, frustrated Local 306 educational assistants walked off the job to obtain fair pay and better working conditions
By Cathy Miehm
KRISTEN WARKENTIN STARTED EVERY DAY with tears. But then she would dry her eyes, don her winter clothing, grab her sign, and go to work on the picket line. It was the last place any of the 325 educational assistants (EAs) working for Manitoba’s Hanover School Division wanted to be for three chilly weeks in November.
Folks who choose EA work rarely do it solely for the money. Educational assistants across Canada are chronically underpaid and undervalued for the complex and emotional work they do. This is especially true in the Hanover district, where salaries fall well short of what’s paid in neighbouring school divisions.
Last autumn, when lengthy negotiations failed to produce a wage offer that acknowledged Canada’s soaring inflation, the EAs voted to strike. But it was a crushing choice for many.
“We put our hearts into our jobs,” says Kristen, who has been an EA for three years and took a certified EA training program at RRC PolyTech (Red River College) in Winnipeg. “We love what we do, and we love the kids that we work with. When we’ve been teaching them something for months and then that light bulb finally goes off for them, it makes it all worth it.”
The EAs all worried the strike would cause their students’ progress to suffer, so there was a lot of emotion on November 1 when they set up picket lines around the city of Steinbach and surrounding communities.
“I cried almost every morning before going out,” said Kristen. “But the other EAs were constantly reminding me that we deserve better. And I knew that in my head, but in my heart, it was hard to justify.”
Heidi Martens is a CLAC representative who works closely with the EAs. She says they were justifiably frustrated by people who considered them “just babysitters,” and who thought that being an EA was an easy second job for many of them.
“These comments, while not only hurtful, are untrue,” says Heidi. “Some of the EAs believed even the school board members didn’t have a clear idea of all the duties they perform.”
In reality, many EAs work two or three jobs just to pay the bills. This is especially true for the single parents in their ranks. The spiralling costs of food and housing, especially since the pandemic, left many EAs and their families in dire straits. That’s not fair to anyone, says Kristen.
“A student deserves an EA who is present and ready to be with them and not exhausted. They deserve an EA who can afford to have just one job, rather than having to work a second job and coming in tired every day.”
Colin Ginter, who just started working as an EA last year, says the remedy is simple enough.
“If they want us to treat this as a career, then they need to pay us like it’s a career,” he says.
The mounting financial challenges meant not everyone felt they could afford to subsist on strike pay. When the EAs heard one of their coworkers felt she had to return to work because her husband was ailing, they took up a collection and raised close to $1,000 in just a couple of days. There were tears and hugs on the picket line when the money was presented.
THE TRUSTEES OF THE HANOVER School Division have always cried poor when asked to increase EA wages and pointed to the provincial government’s funding model as the culprit (see “How Manitoba Funds Its Schools” below). In reality, the board had choices it refused to exercise, even as other school boards found the means to increase EA pay.
The board’s position never resonated with the EAs and, to their delight, it didn’t resonate with many other residents either. The community support for the strikers was overwhelming and unwavering.
“We could see on the streets and through social media that people were really with us,” says Colin. “People were saying things like, ‘The EAs aren’t causing this—it’s the school board.’ That was really nice to see. I’ve got to assume that the school board was surprised by that because I was shocked.”
Apart from honks of support from passing drivers, the picketing EAs were always welcomed at the Pat Porter Active Living Centre, located directly across the road from the school division office. They were invited to go inside to warm up and to use the washrooms whenever necessary. The Public Brewhouse and Gallery on Main Street opened its doors during the day as a strike headquarters and central meeting spot. Members of the community would come by regularly to donate food and coffee and offer words of encouragement to the EAs. Many local businesses showed their support by passing out snacks or allowing EAs to use their washrooms.
The strike, while incredibly stressful for all involved, had an impact that reached beyond the people on the picket lines.
“I believe the strike shook something loose in the community,” says Geoff Dueck Thiessen, Winnipeg Member Centre regional director. “This community has a reputation for being careful with their money, which can be a positive value, but I feel the community sent a powerful message that people must come first and can’t be hurt in service of frugality.”
Heidi says the strike helped bring everyone together after a tumultuous pandemic. “This corner of the province was deeply fractured a few years ago during the COVID mandates. Many of these rural areas were stereotyped as backward and uninformed. The EA group experienced school closures and mass layoffs,” she says.
“What was very beautiful about the strike was the way it unified a community that experienced divides during that contentious time.”
Perhaps the most meaningful support came from the parents of the students the EAs assist. Even though many children with special needs could not be in school for all or part of the day during the strike, parents were steadfast in their support of the cause.
“I can see that their hearts are for the kids,” said Jen Friesen, whose son with special needs has thrived in school with the help of EAs. “If their needs are filled, then they can help the kids better.”
Throughout the strike, Jen and her husband sent several emails to local school board trustees, encouraging them to acknowledge the hard work of the EAs and pay them accordingly.
Lyndsay Eidse was also outspoken in her support for the EAs and shared her concerns in a letter to CLAC. “An EA is someone who fills more hats and more roles than the teachers in the schools. They look after very delicate children. They are alert to all of their medical needs.”
Lyndsay’s son has multiple special needs and requires a full-time EA when in class. It takes a long time for a trusting relationship to develop, she says, and this is lost when a new school year begins with a brand new EA.
“I asked the learning support team in elementary school and middle school, ‘Why can’t he have consistency?’ It’s because an EA works for a year or two and then they have to get another job that pays better. These amazing people that do so many jobs in their workplace, equivalent to nurses, deserve better pay so they stay in their job longer.”
A living wage benefits the children they serve as well as the EAs. Terra-Lee Wilson is an EA whose 11-year-old son, Troy, has complex special needs. She is frustrated by the upheaval Troy and other students endure when there is a revolving door of EAs in their lives.
“Troy is the type of kid who relies on consistency,” says Terra-Lee. “There was a year or two when he had up to five different people a day with him, and those years did not go well. In grades three and four, the school reduced his EAs to two, which brought about a significant positive change. But that is dependent on the connection and capacity of the EA.”
Troy started middle school last year and has had the same EA to assist him since then. “He’s had some really great EAs and currently has an amazing one whom he has an incredible connection with.”
CLAC HAS REPRESENTED HANOVER EAs for almost 20 years, and low wages have always been a sticking point. CLAC has long advocated to improve the wages of EAs and other support staff in school divisions outside of Winnipeg. By 2023, the Hanover workers had simply had enough and were ready to act.
“They were dealing with COVID burnout, inflation, the neighbouring Seine River Division settlement, provincial teacher bargaining, and a shift in provincial funding aimed at equity between school divisions,” says Geoff. “All of those things led us to say, ‘This is the moment where it makes the most sense.’
“If teachers are going to have provincial wage parity, then we should be looking for the same for support staff.”
Negotiations stalled after the school board held fast to an offer of a 13-percent increase over four years. Strike notice had the effect of improving the employer’s offer from 12 percent, but that still didn’t come close to the mandate given to CLAC by the membership. During the strike, the two parties kept bargaining with the help of a conciliator, and after three weeks, an agreement was reached in late November.
The EAs faced a tough choice at ratification. While the settlement provided significantly better wage gains because of the strike, accepting them still involved a difficult compromise. It was clear the school division was willing to accept the costs and damage by hiring replacement workers. The majority of EAs believed that by striking longer, there was little chance that any further monetary gains would be worth the time on the picket line or stresses involved in continuing the strike. Manitoba is now considering legislation prohibiting employers from hiring replacement workers during strikes.
“This agreement pulls total EA compensation close to 16 percent over four years,” Geoff says. “It includes an immediate increase of 6.3 percent, much of which is retroactive. The most senior EAs will see their wages adjusted in total over $2 per hour in 2024, and the education premium increases 42 percent over the life of the agreement, including an immediate 21-percent increase. In addition, EAs will no longer lose workdays due to unpredictable school closures, and they see significant improvements in sick-day provisions.”
Carla Burkert, who is the Local 306 president, sees the new contract as a necessary compromise, but a good start. “There’s still room left to do better for the next contract, but on the whole I think that the gains we made would not have been possible without the strike,” she says. “Wages are going to be an issue again because we are still lagging behind other districts in Manitoba.”
WHILE THE EAS ALL ENDEAVOURED to keep each other’s spirits high during the strike, the three weeks away from work were not easy.
“I think it was really hard, mentally and emotionally, letting go of our workplace when everyone was so dedicated,” says Carla. “We had a really hard time with feeling like we were letting people down. I think that was one of the hugest things to overcome.”
But Geoff witnessed a resilience in the EAs that he attributes to years spent working in less-than-ideal conditions.
“They were used to putting their best face forward while also not being very happy. It’s in their roles to do that—to be cheerleaders under difficult circumstances,” he says.
Colin says the long hours spent in the cold and the disruption in their normal routines left the EAs exhausted.
“I was just completely wiped out,” he says. “When it was all over, I didn’t feel at all prepared to go back to work.”
But the exhaustion and worry quickly fell away when he returned to his school.
“A lot of the kids were thrilled to see me and that made it easier. Just seeing the joy from the kids and from the teachers I work with made it feel really good to be back.”
Kristen had a similar emotional experience on her first day back to work.
“Me and another EA met in the parking lot beforehand. We were so excited. We walked through those doors arm in arm, and there were banners across some of the doorways saying, ‘Welcome Back,’ ‘We Missed You,’ ‘We Love You!’ The teachers came out and gave us big hugs. And then when our students saw us, I got tackled. I’m with younger years and my kids were ecstatic with me being back. It was such a huge celebration.
“Then at the end of the day, the kids surrounded me and one said, ‘Mrs. Warkentin, are you gonna be gone for eight million years again?’ I had to reassure them that the important job that I was doing is done, and now I get to be back with them every day.”
Sadly, that warm welcome didn’t happen in every school, demonstrating that there is still much work to be done to build and nurture positive workplace culture for these front-line workers whom the strike revealed as the cement holding education together.
So, What Does an Educational Assistant Do?
Educational assistants fill many roles, but “babysitter” is not one of them. Over the last 40 years, the inclusive model of education integrated students with diverse abilities into regular classrooms. This is possible with the one-on-one attention educational assistants provide, including personal care, behaviour management, and emotional and academic support. Their duties and responsibilities include
• Assisting students who have challenges regulating their emotions and their behaviour, and teaching students those skills
• Helping students with assignments, either individually or in small groups
• Reinforcing learning and retention concepts under the supervision of the teacher
• Assisting students with special needs using techniques such as sign language, braille, and remedial programs
• Monitoring and reporting on student progress
• Accompanying and supervising students during activities outside the classroom and on field trips
• Monitoring students during recess and at lunch hour or during the day
• Healthcare-related duties, such as feeding tubes, catheterization, toileting, and more.
EAs are a vital part of any successful classroom, especially those with students who have special needs. They often work one-on-one with these children, supporting the work of teachers and clinicians. Good EAs will be aware of the developmental needs of their students and understand the instructional strategies to meet those needs.
“EAs endure violence, tolerate the most challenging student behaviours, and even do healthcare duties like catheterizations, feeding tubes, and colostomy bags,” says Geoff Dueck Thiessen, Winnipeg Member Centre regional director. “They show up every day for the students with the highest needs and are committed to making sure those students have access to safe, quality education.”
CLAC on the Picket Line
When the Hanover educational assistants set up picket lines just as winter rolled in, they were gratified to discover they had rock-solid support from their union.
Carla Burkert, Local 306 president, said the members relied on the daily leadership and support they received from CLAC representatives Geoff Dueck Thiessen and Heidi Martens.
“Our striking EAs were so thankful to have Geoff and Heidi there,” Carla says. “We never would have been able to run this strike the way we did with any other union in the province. CLAC gave us the dignity, the respect, the concern, the care, and the support we needed. It was a functioning, well run, and successful strike.”
Throughout the three-week job action, CLAC directors, representatives, and support staff from other provinces travelled to Steinbach to walk in solidarity with the strikers.
“It was so amazing that people from right across the country came to help,” says Carla. “Would another union have operated that way? Absolutely not. It was CLAC that allowed for our voices to be heard and followed us in what we needed in this strike. We are so thankful for that.”
Five Strikes in 72 Years
As a union based on a cooperative, partnership model of labour relations, as opposed to the adversarial model practiced by traditional unions, it’s no surprise that CLAC has rarely had to use the strike weapon in its 72-year history. As a matter of policy, CLAC typically explores arbitration prior to taking strike action.
Here are the five times in CLAC’s history where members ended up on the picket line to achieve a just settlement.
- CLAC’s first strike occurred in Windsor, Ontario, at Seminole Management and Engineering Company in 1978 and lasted nine weeks.
- The second strike was at C.H. Heist in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1980 and lasted 17 days.
- In Delta, BC, Silver City Galvanizing employees went on strike for six hours on June 5, 1996. The parties then went into mediation and when that failed, there was a further nine-day strike in July.
- On November 13, 2002, a strike at Superior Machine and Tool in Chatham, Ontario, began at midnight and lasted two hours.
- Hanover School Division educational assistants in Steinbach, Manitoba, went on strike for three weeks on November 1, 2023, after talks failed to achieve an acceptable settlement.
How Manitoba Funds Its Schools
Manitoba had always relied on education property taxes to fund its schools, a system that has proven inequitable since prosperous school divisions inevitably raise more money. Even some of the richest divisions have struggled, as their trustees made low taxation a priority.
The province’s previous Progressive Conservative government promised to gradually eliminate that tax entirely and fund the school system directly. The original goal was to have the new model in place for the current school year, but the transition has proved slow and fraught with problems.
In February 2023, the province announced that $100 million more would be funnelled into the public education system, representing a 6.1-percent increase. However, some school divisions crunched the numbers and found their cut came up short. Hanover School District was among them.
While Hanover received a provincial funding increase of $1.1 million in 2023, as well as an $850,000 grant to offset the loss of the education property tax, its expenses rose by $4.7 million, creating a $2.7-million deficit.
Since school divisions are no longer permitted to raise education taxes without facing a funding clawback, Hanover planned a series of cuts. This was the position they took during bargaining with the EAs. CLAC’s bargaining committee took a different view, knowing that this was the window to act and keep up with other school divisions who better recognize the value of EA work, and the cost of underpaying these workers.
Although the strike is over, it shone a light on bigger issues that will not be solved at the local level. CLAC has called on the new NDP government and Premier Wab Kinew to make adequate education funding a priority.
“What Manitobans need to know is that our education system is under immense strain and is being held together by an army of front-line workers who often need to work more than one job,” says Geoff Dueck Thiessen, Winnipeg Member Centre regional director. “And it’s their passion and incredible character that keeps this system running behind the scenes.
“The system needs help, in the form of dollars and cents, and this strike has certainly highlighted that fact. By educating our children, Manitoba’s school divisions help shape our province’s future, and the people they employ—the people who support these students—need to feel supported too.”
Steinbach Fast Facts
• Steinbach has a population of 20,000, making it the third-largest city in Manitoba.
• For millennia, it was home to Ojibway-speaking Anishinaabe people, who would fish, hunt, and trap throughout the area.
• The first European settlers were Mennonites from the Russian Empire, who arrived in the 1870s. Their descendants still make up a big proportion of its population today.
• It is a sister city with Zaporizhia, Ukraine, which is where most of Steinbach’s pioneering families originated.
• Immigrants now make up 21 percent of Steinbach’s population, with most newer arrivals coming from the Philippines, India, and Nigeria.
• Steinbach residents give more of their income to charity than anywhere else in Canada.
• In 2018, after the Canadian government legalized cannabis, Steinbach residents voted to deny the licensing of retail cannabis stores in the city.
• In the 1950s, Steinbach became known as “The Automobile City.” For years, people from Manitoba, Ontario, and elsewhere in the country came to Steinbach to purchase vehicles.