An organized rally of parents, families and community members showed support for CUPE 441 by joining them on the picket lines Friday morning.
According to an event page on Facebook, the rally, organized by parents, is to show support for the union as well as try to get students back into classrooms.
On the page entitled ‘Families Rallying to Support CUPE 441’ it states “We feel that we must take a stand and have no choice but to rally together to put pressure on, to try and help in coming to settlement and end this strike.”
The Facebook page also outlines that the rally will be at Brentwood elementary from 9:00am -11:30am and then move to Sidney elementary from 12:15pm – 2:45pm.
“There is power in numbers, and as we understand that not everyone can take time off work, it would be great if as many parents as possible could come down and show their support, even if just for a short period of time,” the event page states.
The Saanich School strike is reaching the end of its second week as part of a labour dispute that has shut down schools for nearly 8,000 students in the district.
The district’s latest offer, which was rejected by the union, was for pay hikes of seven to twelve percent over three years, with the highest increases targeted towards staff with wages on the lower end relative to other districts. According to the district, this offer is the maximum amount of money it is able to offer under a provincial mandate that caps salary increases.
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