A denied meeting has a union representing support workers at Regina schools disappointed .
CUPE Local 3766 says it asked the Regina Public School Board for a meeting to go over high levels of violence members are facing at work. According to CUPE, over 50 percent of Local 3766 education support workers in Regina participated in the confidential violence survey and the results show:
• Over 77 percent of workers experienced violence in their schools in the last three years.
• Of those workers, 52 percent experienced violent incidents daily, weekly, or monthly.
• Over 50 percent reported an increase of violence in the last three years.
• Seventy percent responded that they were concerned about their own personal health and safety in their schools.
• Even though 66 percent of workers reported violent incidents to their school administrators, 30 percent reported there was no action taken on the report.
• Thirty-four percent of workers did not report violent incidents.
Local President Jackie Christianson said the board said it wouldn’t meet with the union until current bargaining on a new contract is done.
Christianson said this is very frustrating. “If the Minister of Education and the Minister of Labour thought the report was worthy enough for discussions, and we will continue the discussion on a provincial level, then why wouldn’t the trustees want to discus the violence that is happening in the schools they are responsible for?”
She adds that the union just wants to discuss possible solutions to the problem. “It was no different than the meeting I was having with the ministers. How do we come up with some preventative, common shared goals here that isn’t going to cost a lot of money to try and reduce the amount of violence our members are facing.”
“Although 88 percent of the reported violence comes from students, we need to be very clear that we are not blaming them,” said Christianson. “The purpose of the discussion on the survey is to understand the root causes of the increased violence, offer preventative recommendations, and advocate for our members’ safety in our schools. Only then can we focus on every Regina public student reaching their full potential.”
“Just saying ‘no not until bargaining is done’, well sorry that doesn’t fly,” Christianson said. “You won’t talk to us about bargaining wither. What exactly do you do? We are your staff, you are responsible for the kids and the staff in the school. Walk your walk and talk your talk.”
The Regina Public School Board is not commenting on the meeting refusal.
