Community college students face picket lines, delays on campus
Posted September 6, 2011 7:19 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – As community college students return to school Tuesday for the fall semester, they’re being confronted by picket lines and striking support workers.
More than 8,000 union support staff walked off the job last Thursday, and are currently striking for higher wages and more secure, full-time jobs.
A sign posted outside Seneca College Tuesday morning warned students to drive slowly and approach picket lines with caution, as traffic at the colleges is expected to be negatively affected.
A massive rally for support workers is planned for Tuesday morning at Seneca College, which has campus locations all across the north and west end of the city.
Students will have to deal with overall services being scaled back as well, as striking workers include cleaners, food service employees, registration and financial and administrative staff.
Along with delays at the bookstore, registration offices and financial offices, some 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 plan continue to operate during the strike, but not without some delays.
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 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 originally stuck as workers and management couldn’t come to terms over more job security and better wages.
Before the strike OPSEU rejected a final offer 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.
