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School support staff consider government offer

Education assistants, bus drivers and other school workers signed short-term deal in late April

Just a month after signing a short-term deal that avoided a strike, Abbotsford School District support staff are considering another government offer, this one for a long-term contract.

Support staff include education assistants, bus drivers, secretaries and other non-teachers who work in elementary and high schools.

Earlier this month, support staff represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees accepted a government offer that included a 5.5 per cent wage increase over five years.  By accepting the framework agreement, CUPE workers were also promised compensation for not crossing picket lines during the ongoing teacher strike.

But their counterparts in Abbotsford, who are represented by teamsters and who signed a short-term deal in late April, have not yet signed off on the offer.

The workers' Teamsters Local 31 is the only one of 69 locals that has not yet approved the framework agreement.

Teamsters brass met with workers Monday and explained that the union's leadership had only received the offer over the weekend and were still looking over the province's proposal.