#064 - Danielle Danis | The Fort McMurray Educational Support Staff Strike & The Path Forward

Danielle Danis is currently an Educational Assistant and President of CUPE Local 2559 which represents more than 500 members in the Fort McMurray area. Much has taken place with their strike processes over the past six months and in this episode, we go deep into the negotiation timeline, the recent moves made by Danielle Smith to force them back into work, comments made by trusted leaders in the community degrading their position and how they have responded, how the wages for EAs and Custodians ends up being less than minimum wage when averaged out to a normal forty hour week, who the organization directly negotiates with and their justification for not budging, what the options are moving forward, and the implications their experience has for other unions renegotiating their agreements in the future, and, as always, much more. While we do discuss a lot about the minute details of the unionization process, it is around the 39 minute mark where we explore the explicit details relating to the recent events in the Fort McMurray situation. Thank you for tuning in and I hope you enjoy the show. Send us a textThoughts shared on the podcast are purely our own and do not represent the views of the Anglophone South School District or the relevant jurisdictions associated with my guests.