Halifax school support staff strike enters second day

Hundreds of Halifax school support staff are back on the picket lines for a second day.

Hundreds of Halifax school support staff are back on the picket lines for a second day.

Schools remain open Thursday but support staff aren’t there. Some students who use their services have been told to say home.

The strike comes after CUPE Local 5047 didn’t agree to a deal reached with other Locals around the province last week, which included a 6.5 per cent wage hike over four years.

The union says pay is a major sticking point and some workers are having a hard time making ends meet.

The more than 1,800 striking workers include child and youth care practitioners, early childhood educators, school library specialists and more.

Angela Thornhill, whose son Jack is attending class without the help of an educational assistant he normally has, says sending him to school doesn’t sit right with her.

“He would be sequestered with whatever students are there in one classroom and not able to move about his day. So he can’t go to art or he can’t go to English,” she said in a recent interview with CTV Atlantic.