Hundreds of striking workers and their supporters picketed outside Mohawk College in Hamilton and other provincial colleges Thursday morning in an effort to pressure their employers after talks broke down Monday.
At Mohawk’s campus on Fennell Avenue W., workers from southwestern Ontario institutions Niagara College, Sheridan College, and Conestoga College, joined Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 241 in marching and holding signs demanding job security.
“We’ve got very enthusiastic support out here,” Susan Lau, Local 241 president, told CBC Hamilton after the rally as a driver passing the picket line honked.
“Morale has been good on the line,” she said, with workers from other unions, members of the public and college students coming up and sharing encouragement.
Across the province, 10,000 full-time college support staff from Ontario’s 24 public colleges have been on strike since Sept. 11, in a contract fight they say is mainly about protecting jobs.
Lau said the union’s fight for job security seems to have resonated with many, who are aware of major job losses at colleges this past year. OPSEU says over the last year across Ontario, colleges have laid off 10,000 faculty and support staff and cut over 650 programs.
When not on strike, Lau works in information technology. Her role includes training other workers and managing support tickets.
OPSEU says support workers include more than 150 roles such as recruiters, payroll staff, lab technicians, co-op coordinators, financial aid officers and food workers.
Christine Kelsey, the chair of the College Support Full-time Bargaining Team, works at Algonquin College as an assistive technologist who works with students with disabilities. She is also the union local president.
“Anything that’s not teaching or managing is our work,” she told CBC Hamilton Thursday. “The whole lifespan of what is required in colleges is done by us.”
However, Kelsey and Lau say, those jobs are at risk without contract language protecting them from being contracted out and forbidding managers from doing bargaining unit work.
Without those protections, Lau said she worries support staff at Mohawk won’t recover from the winter’s job losses, and that there could be more non-union or part-time jobs at the college.
Full-time jobs for support staff lead to better results for students, she said.
After three days of mediation that started Friday, both OPSEU and the College Employer Council (CEC) — the bargaining agent that represents colleges in negotiations — issued statements accusing the other of blocking a path to a deal.
The CEC says OPSEU already has protections against contracting out work and “is going much further by insisting colleges can never contract out any services without its permission. It is not possible to operate a college that way.”
It says “separating tasks by work groups would grind operations to a halt and leave colleges with no ability to respond to student needs in real time.”
Kelsey said she rejects the CEC’s argument and thinks it should “come back to the table with us and negotiate language that will actually save jobs.”
The coordinated picketing Thursday was part of an effort to pressure college presidents to make that happen, Kelsey said. She spoke to CBC Hamilton by phone from a picket line in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where she was supporting the Sault College picket line.
At Mohawk’s Fennell campus, the college told CBC Hamilton it suspended on-campus classes and activities “in the interest of safety,” Thursday, moving most classes online.
Lau said that means the action was successful and had an impact.
“We understand that it can be challenging for students,” she said of strike disruptions, adding that she and her colleagues have spoken with many of them on the picket line.
“It is really wonderful to talk to them … about how important this system is and how important it is for us to make sure that it continues to exist for them,” Lau said. “If we didn’t have college educations, my family would still be living in poverty.”
Lau and Kelsey point to the recently announced closure of Georgian College’s Orillia and Muskoka campuses as a sign colleges continues to struggle.
“Right now we’re fighting to save jobs,” Kelsey said. “We’re expecting thousands of jobs to be contracted out if we don’t get these protections.”
She said workers are ready to negotiate and hope the public supports them because “colleges are important to our communities and support staff are important to colleges.”
