Should classsroom assistants be unionized?

I hope all is well for you this Christmas season. My name is Fletcher Madden, and I am employed as a CSA (classroom support assistant), at the Inuksuk high school here in Iqaluit.

The high school had a career day recently, with many career options for the students to learn about. Careers were displayed with NTI, NTCL, Canadian North, the RCMP, CBC, the Wildlife Office, the GN, Northmart as well as many others.

Sadly, the students were not offered any information about the education field.

It seems that the job of a classroom support person isn’t presented as a possible career. Why is this? Maybe because the most a classroom support can make is $18.00/hour. Maybe it is because classroom support assistants don’t receive a travel allowance, a northern allowance or health benefits. Maybe classroom supports aren’t presented as a career option because of the high turnover rate and people quitting their classroom support jobs. Maybe it’s the lack of maternity leave or the lack of professional development days.

The career days here at the Inuksuk High School were introduced by both the premier and the mayor. Many students benefited from this successful venture and will continue to do so with the many career days that lie ahead. Unfortunately, because of one, a couple, or all of the previously mentioned reasons, classroom supports are still left out in the cold and not recognized as a career that should provide a living wage and benefits.

We, as classroom supports, play an important part in the lives of the children we work with. We are positive role models who work with the students one-on-one every day, and these students learn, work, and feel better about their educational environment if they are surrounded by confident and stable educators.

As classroom supports, we must do our best to continually improve our positions in the education environment.

Have you had enough? Christmas is coming and we don’t get any Christmas bonuses. Librarians and daycare workers just got a raise, but we still make less than $20,000 take-home a year. Are you upset?

For years, people in education have said they understand and sympathize and will improve our sub-standard employment situation. Nothing has happened and nothing will happen, unless we make it happen.

I guess the real reason that I didn’t do a presentation of my job as a career option was due to laziness.

In peace and solidarity

Fletcher Madden
CSA Inuksuk high school
Iqaluit