Strike could close some schools: official
Posted Jan 11, 2010 05:48:53 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
One school official in Cape Breton is hinting a potential strike next week may close some schools if a labour stoppage drags on.
More than 4,000 support workers outside HRM are threatening to walk out a week from today. School board officials said last week that schools would remain open, but Cape Breton School Superintendent Ed Davis says that may not be the case.
Davis tells the Herald, schools will stay open as long as possible, but past strikes resulted in closures because of vandalism or a lack of cleanliness.
Health inspectors, for example, threatened to shut down the schools if problems like plugged toilets weren’t taken care of.
The head of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour says the Dexter government can’t set aside wage parity because it’s facing a deficit.
Rick Clarke says in a release that paying health and education workers outside Halifax less than their counterparts in HRM will have a “devastating” effect on rural services.
He says some classifications are already facing worker shortages and paying less for positions outside Halifax will make the shortages more severe.
