BROCKVILLE, Ontario — On Sept. 11 some 10,000 full-time support staff at Ontario’s 24 colleges, members of the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union, went on strike for job security, better wages and benefits. They include disability support staff, library technicians, financial-aid workers and information technology services staff.
Talks between the union and the College Employer Council broke down Sept. 29 after the employer refused to budge on job security.
“We are walking the line to protect our work after thousands upon thousands of layoffs across the system, there’s nothing else this fight can be about,” Christine Kelsey, chair of the full-time staff bargaining team, told the press after the talks broke off.
“None of the employer’s proposals save a single job. True job security looks like protections against the elimination of jobs, not extended notice or streamlining new pathways for layoffs.”
On the picket line here that day, workers were eager to explain their fight. Crystal Baker, picket captain at Saint Lawrence College Brockville campus, told the Militant her job was eliminated and she had to move to another position.
“Already food services and parking have been contracted out,” she said. “In addition, both the Brockville and Cornwall campuses have lost their bookstores and libraries. Students get their books out of a vending machine.”
On Sept. 18, a number of students on all three of Saint Lawrence College campuses walked out of class to join the picket line. “As students we really need our support staff,” Emma Coughlin, a third-year nursing student at Brockville, told the media.