AVRSB superintendent Dr. Norm Dray and board chairwoman Lavinia Parrish-Zwicker, right, watch as NSGEU president Joan Jessome adds her signature to the collective agreement governing the school board’s educational assistants.
N.Kelly
Valley EAs start year with new contract
BY NANCY KELLY
Kings County Register
The Annapolis Valley Regional School Board (AVRSB) opened the new school year with a new collective agreement with the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU), which represents close to 400 educational assistants working in schools in the valley board.
Ratified in June, the new contract expires in April, 2010 and was formally signed September 5 by local union members, including local chairman Katherine Guest and NSGEU president Joan Jessome.
Commenting on the contract negotiations, AVRSB human resources director Allen Hume called the process part of a “good ongoing relationship with the NSGEU,” and said, at all times, the needs of students “were always in the forefront.”
Jessome shared Hume’s opinion of the bargaining process.
“It was always about the students.”
She also thanked the board for inviting her group to sign the new labour agreement at its public meeting.
Superintendent Dr. Norm Dray reported there were no major issues encountered when hammering out the three-year deal that will provide a 2.9 per cent pay increase for EAs over each of the contract years.
