100 striking Algonquin College faculty picket Chiarelli’s office
Liberal government is not an ‘innocent bystander’ in ongoing dispute, union says
About 100 striking faculty from Algonquin College picketed the office of Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Bob Chiarelli on Tuesday to press their demands for an end to the labour dispute.
About 12,000 college professors, “partial load” instructors, counsellors and librarians across the province have been on strike since Oct. 16.
The Ontario government should pressure the College Employer Council that represents 24 colleges to bargain seriously, said Pat Kennedy, president of the Algonquin faculty union. The council refuses to budge from the “final offer” it proposed just before the strike began, he said. The council has said its offer is fair.
So far the government has declined to intervene directly in the dispute.
Both Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Deb Matthews, the minister responsible for post-secondary education, have urged both sides to get back to the bargaining table to negotiate a deal.
Local union vice-president Jack Wilson told pickets walking on the sidewalk in front of Chiarelli’s office on Carling Avenue that the Liberal government is not an “innocent bystander” in the dispute that has students missing classes.
SEEKING A BETTER DEAL
There have been three previous college faculty strikes in Ontario.
One ended with the government legislating employees back to work; the other two were settled when the two sides agreed to arbitration.
The union is seeking a better deal for part-time instructors who have no job security and lower pay than full-timers, and it wants more control for professors on academic matters. The colleges say the union’s demands, including a 50-50 ratio of full- and parttime staff, would cost an extra $250 million a year and reduce hiring flexibility.
Picket Colleen Mayo-Pankhurst said she’s been working on parttime contracts for 15 years, teaching communications in the hospitality and tourism department.
“I love my job, and I love my students,” she said. She is paid $80 an hour for the nine hours she teaches each week, or $720 a week. But when course preparation and marking are included, she says it ends up being a full-time job.
Professor Amy Simoneau said she was one of the “lucky ones” who was able to snag a full-time job after working part-time for several years. She delayed starting a family because of the insecurity of the part-time work; instructors must re-apply for their jobs each semester. “To me this is a big issue. You can’t make a living.”