After more than two years of negotiation, unionized staff of the Progress Centre for Early Childhood Intervention have voted unanimously in favour of a possible strike and are now engaged in a drawn-out conciliation phase.

For fifteen years, starting salaries for early childhood interventionists remained frozen at $30,000, and increases for experienced staff have been minimal. Two of three increases that did materialize were a result of private fundraising activities by the centre.

“Our staff members are going to food banks,” said Hughena Covill, president of CUPE Local 5054. Covill also talked of staff cashing in retirement funds and insurance policies just to survive.

The Progress Centre, which did not return phone calls, supports children younger than school age who have special needs. Early interventionists make home visits, organize playgroups, identify support services and assist parents and caretakers.

Other unionized workers at the Centre are Coordinators, library staff, administrative assistants and resource personnel.

Covill told the Halifax Media Co-op that government funding for the Progress Centre only allows for very low wages that do not reflect the academic qualifications, experience and skills that staff bring to the job.

Many on staff have Masters degrees, almost all are women.

The Progress Centre is not covered by Workers' Compensation. Educational institutions are exempt from mandatory coverage by the Workers' Compensation Board. For staff of the Progress Centre, this means that in some cases their only option when injured is to sue the employer for negligence.

“We go into people's homes, we travel everywhere, we visit daycare centres, this is not a safe workplace,” said Debra Reynolds Banting, vice president of CUPE Local 5054. Banting is worried about this lack of coverage.

And then there is stress. “Sometimes one of our kids dies. If you take that particularly hard, you need a break. Those are realities,” Covill added.

The government claims that it has no jurisdiction in any of these matters. In an email dated June 13, 2013, Community Services spokesperson Elizabeth MacDonald wrote that Community Services has nothing to say on the topic of wages since “early interventionists are not staff of the Province of Nova Scotia.”

Covill believes that statement is disingenuous: Community Services provides up to 80 per cent of the Progress Centre's funding.

“It was about six or seven years ago that our agency entered into a service agreement with Community Services. They made a commitment to fund core services and so forth, but they put off talking about wages and salaries,” said Banting.

“So, the centre got more funding, we got a higher case load, and there was a promise that in the next round we would talk about salaries. It never happened,” Banting said.

All this makes it difficult to negotiate a contract.

CUPE National Representative Naomi Stewart believes that the provincial government has to owe up to its responsibilities. “We have to push government; they provide the funding,” said Stewart.

Stewart also mentioned that in the first conciliation meeting with management no additional money was offered.

“There is no way that we can go back to staff with a contract that has no raises in it,” said Stewart.

The Progress Centre staff is far from alone in their predicament. There are seventeen Early Childhood Intervention centres in the province.

“We are the first centre to unionize,” said Covill. “I have been approached by many of my peers across the province and they are all supporting us.”

And it isn't just about money. Covill explained that early childhood interventionists provide a crucial service.

“You can ask any school principal, they can tell the children that have taken part in our programs. We bring their speech up, we bring their skill set up, to the point that when they go to school they are not completely lost and become a problem child,” said Covill.

But it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract staff, said Covill.“People enter the job market carrying huge student loans, how are they going to pay those loans back with this kind of salary?”

“This is a province-wide issue, it is not just us. How you care for the very young, the very old, and people with disabilities, that tells you a lot about the kind of society you are in,” she said.

“And this particular society is not doing a real good job of it right now."