Queen Elizabeth High School students deal with extreme heat amid CUPE strike

Higher pay is a hot-button issue for Calgary school maintenance and custodial workers who walked off their jobs this week.

The fight for higher wages is a hot-button issue for more than 1,000 Calgary CUPE employees, and the ongoing strike is quite literally heating up at one school in particular.

Queen Elizabeth High School students said temperatures in their classrooms reached upwards of 40 C Wednesday morning.

“It’s boiling in there,” said Grade 12 student Gabriel Howse. “The main floor is alright, but the upper floor is like 35 C, even 40 C in some spaces.”

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“I have a class in the top floor, but it got moved into a staff room. We’ve been noticing not just this issue, but the floors are getting dirtier, there’s garbage in places that there shouldn’t be too, and we need those maintenance workers for sure to help take care of the school.”

Other students, like Loren Johnston, agree.

“It’s just really dirty and really hot in there,” she said. “It’s important to have the floors cleaned for tripping hazards too and we’re noticing it.”

Some students even reported feeling light-headed.

“At the moment I don’t think it’s to the crucial point, but it’s only been a couple days of this strike and these are not the best conditions for us,” said Nikita Kukher, a Grade 11 student.

The administrative team at Queen Elizabeth sent an email to parents and guardians about the heat on Wednesday morning, saying they have been in contact with the facilities team to address the issue.

“We want to assure you that all the students and staff are safe. We are monitoring the temperature in classrooms. Learning is continuing and we will adjust as required.

“The [Calgary Board of Education] continues to address emergent maintenance issues in schools.”

In a statement to CTV News, the CBE said all students and staff at Queen Elizabeth are safe and that the temperature was being monitored in classrooms.

The board noted that its complying with Alberta Health Services guidelines, occupational health and safety regulations, and that all building maintenance and safety protocols remain in place.

“Our focus during this time of job action is to keep schools open for in-person learning for students. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this time.”

On the picket line

CUPE Local 520 (Calgary Catholic School District) and CUPE Local 40 (Calgary Board of Education) both began striking on Monday, Feb. 24.

Anthony Pointmeier, the maintenance and welding department lead for the CBE, took to the picket line Wednesday alongside fellow CUPE members.

He says the issue at Queen Elizabeth High School is a prime example of why maintenance workers are essential to positive learning environments.

He says that there are other maintenance crews that the CBE can call, but says his team works directly with the school board and can respond much faster to these types of emergent situations.

“We work in tandem with other crews, hand-in-hand to solve these problems, but their response time doesn’t touch ours,” Pointmeier said.

“With other contracting companies, emergency callouts come with an extra call out fee as well.”

Pointmeier, who has been with CUPE for the past nine years, hasn’t seen a wage increase for close to a decade.

He added that the education system will suffer without maintenance workers or custodial staff and that they deserve to make a living pay.

“This highlights the need to have our folks back in these schools. You know, they’re fifth-class ticketed engineers, they’re used to reading these boilers, they’re in touch with our trades and they have the ability to issue emergency work orders right away and have an immediate response.”

“I don’t think that they’re going to get that anywhere else outside of our members.”

‘Hope the government has a heart’

Henry Hernandez, the president of CUPE Local 520, has been a custodial worker with the Calgary Catholic School Board for the past 16 years.

He says outside of cleaning, staff members like him are also responsible for security and making sure of the safe operation of on-site equipment.

“We keep on pressing this government for change and I hope the government has a heart, otherwise this problem will keep on going.”

“We accepted zeroes for the last decade, but this time we don’t understand why the government doesn’t have enough resources to provide for our education system.”

Medeana Moussa, executive director of the education advocacy group Support Our Students is also speaking out.

“We are at an absolute breaking point,” Moussa said.

“The system cannot continue to be starved of funds, and I just find it really rich that the UCP MLAs have given themselves a raise this year, and yet we have workers that are below the poverty line, really not asking for much other than justice and fairness, and they are being denied.”