Support workers at
Algonquin
and La Cité
colleges
took to the picket lines Thursday morning as part of a province-wide strike.
Across Ontario, some 10,000 members of the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU) went on strike just after midnight, calling for better job security, wages and benefits.
“We’ve lost 10,000 jobs across the system this year alone, and more than 650
programs
in every community across the province,” said Christine Kelsey, the OPSEU head of the bargaining team and a technologist at Algonquin College.
“With our colleges plunged into chaos, job security is key to stabilizing the system – because the future of our work is the future of student support.”
Algonquin said classes would continue during the strike, but some services on campus could be delayed or cut back during the job action.
“Negotiations between OPSEU and the College Employer Council, the bargaining agent for Ontario’s colleges, are ongoing. We remain hopeful that a resolution will be reached soon,” the college said in a statement on its website.
The College Employer Council (CEC) said in a statement that OPSEU had rejected its most recent offer, tabled Tuesday. In a statement, OPSEU said the CEC negotiating team left the bargaining table six hours before the strike deadline.
The CEC said some demands by the union were a poison pill. “A complete ban on campus closures, college mergers and staff reductions could force colleges into bankruptcy,” CEC CEO Graham Lloyd said in a statement on the organization’s website.
Meanwhile, the union said that a provincial Skills Development Fund (SDF) is being used to undermine the public college system. The fund allocates $2.5 billion over three years towards training in the skilled trades. It also provides money to upgrade training centres.
“The SDF is a $2.5-billion ‘black box’ without financial oversight that is being used to subsidize a privatized career training system. Meanwhile, public colleges that serve local communities have been defunded in real time,” OPSEU said in a statement.
Support workers at colleges include a variety of staff, including disability support workers, library technicians, financial aid employees and IT services staff. The union said there are about 150 different job classifications included in the strike.
The strike comes at a time when colleges across the province, including in Ottawa, have struggled with serious financial shortfalls. Algonquin is facing a deficit of $60 million, which could rise to $93 million the year after. The budget issues have led to cuts of programs and the planned closure of the college’s
Perth campus
next year.
