More than 10,000 college support workers go on strike across Ontario
More than 10,000 full-time support workers from Ontario's 24 public colleges are going on strike starting Thursday in an effort to ensure job security, says the union.
The College Employer Council (CEC) "walked away from the [negotiation] table" after failing to respond since 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, said the support staff bargaining team from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).
"If they think they can neglect their responsibility to bargain, it's time we remind them there is power in the union," the union said in an emailed statement.
"This is not just a fight for a contract — it's about the future of student support. We're fighting because we know our students need us."
OPSEU — which represents librarian technicians, registrar employees and technology support staff — and the CEC have been negotiating a new contract since June. The previous contract expired Sept. 1.
Citing mass layoffs, the union says job security and appropriate funding are major concerns for staff.
The union estimated that previous and upcoming system-wide cuts will result in 10,000 job losses, and over 650 programs have already been cancelled, it said to CBC News in August.
Over 55 community groups have joined the Ontario Federation of Labour's pledge to support striking workers, said the union.
Post-secondary classes from Sault Ste. Marie to Kitchener to Oshawa are in full swing, but the strike will bring essential services at public colleges to a halt. Picket lines at those schools will be in effect at various times and locations, the union said.
Negotiations failed after the OPSEU "insisted on its 'poison pill' demands," said the CEC in an update on its website on Wednesday.
It says the union's demands are fiscally impossible in a time when college enrolments and revenues are down by as much as 50 per cent.
The CEC urged the union to agree to arbitration to avoid disruption to student learning.
"A complete ban on campus closures, college mergers and staff reductions could force colleges into bankruptcy," said the CEC's CEO Graham Lloyd in the update.
The CEC says its proposal added more than $145 million in wage and benefit improvements to the collective agreement, including:
- A wage increase of two per cent in each year of the contract;
- Increase in on-call premiums by 75 per cent;
- Enhanced vision and hearing benefits;
- Improvements to job security regarding new technology;
- Increase in shift premiums by 67 and 75 per cent;
- Severance enhancements increased by 50 per cent for employees laid off due to the current financial crisis.
Parents with children at Toronto's George Brown College's 14 daycare centres are scrambling this morning to find alternative child care, said parent Dave Rutt, who noted early childhood educators are part of the strike. His daughter is one of about 35 children who attend the Parkdale Child Care Centre.
Though parents were warned of the possibility of a strike, he says they have limited options while centres are closed "for the foreseeable future."
"If I was working, I don't know what we'd be doing, to be honest. I would probably have to take a lot of time off work," said Rutt, who is currently on parental leave.
He says some parents are coming together to help take care of each other's children and to support daycare staff on the picket lines.
"Everybody's just kind of feeling a little bit conflicted," he said. "There's a sense of support for the [early childhood educators] who take care of our kids, but then of course there's also the stress of trying to find child care last minute."
cbc.ca
