College students may be unable to get loans, financial services during strike
Posted September 3, 2011 11:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – Students at Ontario’s 24 community colleges may not be able to get loans and take advantage of other financial services offered by the province during the current support staff strike.
College councillors who help students with financial issues and OSAP applications are among the 8,000 striking workers represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
The colleges have said they will continue to operate during the strike, but as expected, there have already been a number of delays and an overall decline in service for students.
Chris Whitaker, president at St. Lawrence College, told the Canadian Press the colleges are trying to minimize delays for students looking to obtain loans.
“We’ve got our managers covering off, so working in the academic school offices to deal with students coming in, releasing financial aid documents to students who are coming in for OSAP,” Whitaker said.
Peterborough’s Fleming College has cancelled all their loan appointments for the upcoming first week of classes, while Georgian College in Barrie had said new loans will not be processed during the strike.
Contract talks between the two sides stuck as workers were asking for more job security and better wages.
Before the strike, OPSEU rejected a final offer provided by the colleges which included a 4.75 per cent wage increase over a 3 year period.
The union says it went on strike because the colleges demanded too many concessions from their existing contract.
