Editor, The News:
Re: School budget hits CUPE hard (The News, April 11).
School District No. 42, largest employer in this community, sure knows how to spin its numbers.
Twenty-three full-time equivalent jobs equates to 33 jobs lost for CUPE support staff employees because less than 200 of the more than 700 support staff workers are employed full-time.
But that’s not all.
This district is affecting cuts to more than 500 CUPE support staff employees, yet not one cut was made to the highest paid feeders from the public trough – salaried administrators, managers and exempt staff.
The 500 employees, most with an average annual gross income of $25,000, are getting hours cut on top of losing five days of pay so that salaried employees can continue to enjoy a two-week, paid spring break.
CUPE members do not generally use the media to whine about their working conditions or the fact that they have endured years of zero wage increases, so very few people realize the jobs support staff perform.
CUPE employees are the frontline workers in school districts, yet the services they provide are ignored and undervalued, not only by the public – who think teachers are the only people who provide services to students – but by their own employer.
This district has very little respect for its frontline workers. These are the people who keep our schools clean, safe and inclusive and who provide direct services to the classroom, to teachers and to your children and grandchildren.
What this district is doing is nothing short of disgusting.
These cuts will definitely affect the classroom and will jeopardize the health and safety of our students.
If this board of education really stood up for the students, it would submit a deficit budget.
Oh, but wait, that would mean they might lose their jobs and that nice cost of living allowance they just awarded themselves. Wonder who’s funding that perk?
Leslie Franklin, president
CUPE Local 703
