Ontario’s College Students Could Be Hurt by Support Staff Strike
Bad news for Ontario’s college students. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union recently voted in favour of a strike mandate.
“The message our members have delivered is a clear message,” said Rod Bemister, chair of the bargaining team for OPSEU.
“They’ve said to the bargaining team we want you to forge ahead and negotiate a new collective agreement that meets our demands without giving in to management concessions.”
The union represents non-teaching jobs like computer support staff, janitors and lab technicians at colleges across Ontario. Their current agreement expires on August 31, 2011. After that workers would be in a legal strike position, but many are hopeful it doesn’t come to that.
“We are asking both sides in this negotiation to consider the students. Bargain in good faith and leave a strike option out of the equation,” said College Student Alliance (CSA) President, Brian Costantini.
He also pleaded with college administrations to “have a plan in place to minimize disruptions to the students. Our member student associations are more than willing to be a part of those plans. It is important that the students are not the ones caught in the crossfire of negotiations.”
OPSEU represents more than 8,000 college support workers at 24 colleges across Ontario.
Does this include cleaning service or Janitorial services? – What if the ministry of the health says the colleges are to messy?