School support workers serve strike notice for Monday in Saanich, B.C.

SAANICH, B.C. – Support staff in British Columbia’s Saanich school district have served 72-hour strike notice.

The strike would involve about 500 workers in the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 441 who are education assistants, youth and family counsellors, or provide technical support, transportation, maintenance and other services.

A union statement says the notice was served after two unsuccessful mediation sessions earlier this month.

Local president Dean Coates says they’re disappointed a deal couldn’t be reached and their goal has always been to come to agreement without disrupting students and families in Saanich.

Coates says the sticking point is that their members have received substantially lower wages for decades compared with their counterparts in neighbouring southern Vancouver Island districts.

The union says its members will start job action on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2019.