Cardy holds update this afternoon on strike impact
CBC
Education Minister Dominic Cardy will hold an update at 2:30 p.m. Monday, Day 4 of a strike by thousands of provincial employees who are members of CUPE.
The update is being live-streamed here on CBC News.
The CUPE strike, which began on Friday, involves 22,000 workers in 10 locals, including health care, education, transportation and agricultural sectors, as well as social workers, jail guards, court stenographers and staff at WorkSafeNB and New Brunswick community colleges.
On Sunday, the New Brunswick government locked out all non-designated employees in CUPE locals 1253 and 2745, including custodians, bus drivers, school library assistants and administrative support, as well as a number of educational assistants, as workers continue to strike over wages.
Cardy said that even if all of the essential-designated staff showed up, there would not be enough to keep schools open for in-person learning.
Schools across the province moved to online learning as of Monday, and were to remain that way until the end of a strike by Canadian Union of Public Employees members that began Friday.
Some parents have said they are not participating in online school in solidarity with workers, especially educational assistants, who are on strike or locked out by the province.
Ferries are back online after a weekend disruption, but the province and CUPE disagree on why they were offline.
Service has been restored on the Gondola Point and Evandale ferry routes and continues on the Westfield crossing, which was working Sunday as well.
CUPE local 1190, representing ferry workers among others, has gone on strike after talks with the province broke down over wages.
Depending on the ferry route, 60 to 70 per cent of the workers are designated essential and must continue working, said Local 1190 president Brent Wiggins. He said the province has a list of those designated workers, and it's up to the employer to call up the designated workers and prevent a service disruption.
Mark Taylor, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, said some of those designated workers did not show up over the weekend.
"I can confirm the ferry service was not operational because for whatever reason, the designated employees ... not all, but some designated employees, did not show up to work on the weekend," he said. "I can't speak to anything else."
Wiggins said this is "the first I've heard of this."
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