With support staff at Ontario’s 24 colleges eligible to go on strike Thursday, union members held a ‘practise picket’ in front of Loyalist College Wednesday.
About 10,000 employees represented by OPSEU could walk off the job at 12:01 Thursday if an agreement isn’t reached with the College Employer Council.
Tim Prewer, President of OPSEU Local 421 which represents support staff at Loyalist says members are afraid they won’t be able to pay their bills and some fear losing their jobs altogether.
“We haven’t had a real good, new contract in several years. We haven’t kept up with the cost of living but what we’re really going for is job security. Right now job security is paramount because people are losing their jobs left, right and centre.”
Prewer says both sides were continuing to meet Wednesday in hopes of reaching a deal and averting a strike.
He adds that while first and foremost they are looking for job security, there’s more at stake than just another contract.
“It’s about us actually saving the college and college system because Mr. Ford has been siphoning off monies that would have gone to the colleges and setting up private schools. So we want to get the money back so we can support our college and support our community.”
Faculty members also joined the demonstration calling on the provincial government to save public colleges.
OPSEU Local 420 represents Loyalist faculty.
Local president Tracy Mackenzie says the province is using public money to fund private providers.
“We’re just starting to scrape the surface of the Skills Development Fund now and through our research we’re discovering that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to the Skills Development Fund to fund private companies to deliver training programs with absolutely no oversight, reporting mechanisms, etc.”
The province has said it will continue to fund public colleges and that claims otherwise are false.
And should support staff walk off the job, MacKenzie says they will encourage their members to support the strike in whatever way they feel comfortable.
“Of course there’s a lot of fear right now. Everybody’s afraid for their jobs and we’re not gonna ask members to do something that they’re not comfortable doing. But we are encouraging members to seriously consider what they can do to support these efforts.”
MacKenzie says she won’t be crossing a picket line.
