CUPE 3550 vote in favour of strike action [Video]

Edmonton education support staff could be heading to the picket lines.

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On Thursday, members of CUPE Local 3550, representing Edmonton Public School Board education support staff, voted to strike.

The union posted the unofficial results on Facebook. Of the 92 per cent of members who voted, 97 per cent voted in favour of strike action. 

Those results will have to be approved by the Alberta labour board before becoming official.

Virtual voting started Wednesday morning after negotiations stalled with the school board.

The union said the wage rates being offered are not enough to address the gap arising from higher costs-of-living, higher workloads and ongoing understaffing.

“This is about sustaining quality public education,” CUPE Local 3550 president Mandy Mandy Lamoureux said on Thursday. “We can’t properly staff these schools with poverty wages.”

On Tuesday, the union said EPSB verbally offered to extend …