FALL RIVER: Droves of Lockview High students totalling approximately 200 walked out of class mid-morning Friday to show their support with striking CUPE Local 5047 workers.
The walkout was organized by student Jake Foster to show they supported EPAs and other school support workers who are on strike as they look for a fair deal and fair wage from the provincial government. His friends mom is an EPA at Rocky Lake school.
The students were met halfway by some of the support workers and continued walking up Lockview Road on the sidewalk.
Students and the support workers that met them then walked along the sidewalk past Ash Lee Jefferson School to where the bulk of the other striking workers were on the picket line along Fall River Road. The picket line stretched from Jamieson Park up past Georges P. Vanier Junior High in Fall River to the parking lot of St,. Rose of Lima church.
As students arrived, some grabbed signs and crossed the crosswalk at Lockview and Fall River Road and headed down to Hwy 2/Fall River Road lights hoping motorists would see.
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As students from LHS walked up and down the picket line, as well as support workers, there were plenty of honks from construction dump trucks, general public, HRM Firefighters in a fire truck, and more.
Student Arika Greenwood felt it was important for her and others to show the striking support workers that they mean a lot to them.
“I think they don’t get paid nearly enough especially with the kind of stuff they deal with,” said Greenwood as she and friend Victoria Fitzmorris held a CUPE sign on pink Bristol board.
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Fitzmorris thought the turnout may open some peoples eyes.
“I think its a lot more then people were expecting it to be,’ she said. ‘Its awesome.”
“For it being close to lunch time when most kids should be down at Tim’s and their not, I like that,” added Greenwood.
Greenwood is hopeful walkouts like the one at Lockview plus others at HRCE high schools will put pressure on the government to come meet with a fair deal for the support workers.
“I hope they listen and see that its not just the support workers they’re impacting, it’s the students and our ability to go to school,” she said.
The students on the picket line were marked absence from the classes they missed to participate in the walkout.
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Foster said he knows many of the support workers at LHS who are on the picket line, and he wanted to do his part to support them.
“The work they do is really hard,” said Foster. “It’s unfair some of the wages that they’re getting so I think they should be getting better wages.”
Foster said he was out on the picket line with the workers on Thursday as well.
He was impressed with how many students participated in the walkout.
“This is awesome,” he said. ‘This is exactly how I wanted it to go.
“It shows all the support workers what they mean.”
Foster is hopeful the government will return to the negotiating table with CUPE Local 5047.
“I hope it makes the government notice that there’s support for these workers and they can give them what they need, which is a fair wage,” said Foster.
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Tracey White, Picket captain for the Lockview location, said it was wonderful to see the support from the students at Lockview High.
“We do so much for not just our own students in the Learning Centre, but we also help out other students and make a safe environment,” she said. “Its nice to see that we have tremendous support.
“Some of these students parents are affected with their siblings.”
She said the workers, some who make under $30,000 a year now, would love to be able to have a decent wage so they can continue to do what they love doing.So the workers would like to get a living wage that is around what that is in N.S., approximately $46,000 a year.
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White thinks the government is getting a clear message of what support workers mean to schools in HRCE.
“I hope they see that we are a crucial part of the education system sector and give us a living wage,” she said.
At Dutch Settlement Elementary School, support workers have been walking the picket line there as well since Wednesday morning.
They have received many honks of horns and waves from passerbys in support of them being on strike.
There is no word on when—and if—the two sides will be returning to the bargaining table.
The support workers will be manning the picket line during weekdays as long as the strike continues.
