Nova Scotia’s school support workers will be in a legal strike position beginning Monday, but the earliest they could walk off the job is Wednesday because doing so requires 48 hours’ notice.

The province’s regional centres for education and the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial have been in contract negotiations with the Canadian Union of Public Employees for several months.

The union represents 5,500 workers, including educational program assistants, early childhood educators in the pre-primary program, bus drivers, janitors, library support specialists, and Black and Mi’kmaw student support workers.

A conciliation meeting held Friday failed to result in “significant movement,” a union spokesperson told CBC News on Saturday. The spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

While each union local has its own unique concerns, core issues for all workers include wages, benefits, school safety, staffing levels and training.

A strike would have different impacts depending on what part of the province people live in.

Some schools would offer a combination of in-person, at-home and online learning. But the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education, for example, would close schools altogether in the event of a strike — shifting to at-home and online learning. Some pre-primary programs would be paused.

Source: CBC Nova Scotia