College faculty plan ‘silent protest’ during convocation
As up to 900 Niagara College students will graduate on Friday, the teachers who gave them the education they needed to earn those diplomas will be relegated to the sidelines.
And being excluded from the fall convocation ceremonies is a blow to college faculty, who feel a sense of pride watching the students they taught achieving their goals.
“Convocation is a day that faculty are very proud of themselves. It hurts us to not be part of it, to not be there,” said Ravi Ramkissoonsingh, vice-president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 242, which represents about 510 faculty members at Niagara College.
“That’s the way faculty feels about it. It’s disappointing for our faculty that this situation is ongoing and we’re not able to get back to the bargaining table.”
Although they won’t be part of the ceremony, Ramkissoonsingh said local faculty will make their presence known.
“What we’re planning is actually a silent protest. We don’t want to disrupt the day for the graduates or their families. We’ll be holding up signs in support of the graduates,” he said. “We’re not going to be disruptive and we’re not going to hold anyone up or anything like that.”
More than 10,000 faculty at colleges across Ontario have been on strike since Oct. 16, after negotiations between OPSEU and the College Employer Council ground to a halt.
Several colleges have since postponed their fall convocation ceremonies, including Mohawk, Seneca, Georgian and Algonquin colleges, to name a few.
Niagara College, however, is continuing with its ceremony, planned for the Welland campus starting at 10 a.m.
“A lot of other colleges have postponed their fall convocations and we’re disappointed that Niagara elected to go ahead with it,” Ramkissoonsingh said.
“That’s why we’re going to have this style of protest, letting people know we’re there, that we’re supportive of the students, the graduates and their families. But we’re also letting the college administration know we are here, outside. Because of the strike and the failure to settle, we’re not able to partake in the convocation like we’d like to.”
Niagara College communications manager Michael Wales said the college chose to go ahead with the convocation ceremony, to minimize the impact of the strike on graduating students and their families.
“I think that all of us certainly share a desire to allow graduates and their guests to enjoy this special day. It’s certainly a significant milestone,” he said. “We certainly had to make a decision, and at the end of the day we think this is the approach that is most fair to graduates and their families.”
Wales said between 15 and 20 faculty members typically participate in convocation ceremonies. Instead, administration and nonacademic staff will fill in for the striking teachers.
Meanwhile, Welland MPP Cindy Forster, the NDP’s labour critic, raised the issue in the provincial legislature Tuesday, blaming the ongoing strike on “chronic underfunding.
“Overuse of part-time faculty has ballooned to a shocking 81 per cent at colleges across Ontario. Instructors are forced to string together multiple contracts across multiple colleges and many are required to find additional employment just to make ends meet,” Forster said.
“The government has created and embraced a culture of parttime, precarious contract work in our colleges. In Ontario we need good full-time jobs if we’re going to have a strong economy in the 21st century.”
Ramkissoonsingh, who is also a member of OPSEU’s bargaining committee, said the union and faculty are also disappointed about the lack of progress resolving outstanding issues in contract negotiations.
“We’re very anxious to get back to the table. It seems like the college employer council is just trying to stall.”
He estimated that the colleges are saving about $15 million a week across Ontario, in teacher salaries that are not being paid.
One main stumbling block in the negotiations is the ratio of full time to contract faculty.
“That’s a huge sticking point. We think it’s reasonable to have a 50:50 ratio” of full time and contract faculty, he said, adding the union is also willing to allow the colleges to gradually make the change during the three-year term of the contract.
“You should be able to run a college system effectively with 50 per cent full time and 50 per cent contract.”
Ramkissoonsingh said the union is willing to negotiate, and the progress they’ve made through negotiations are apparent when reviewing union proposals posted on the collegefaculty.org website since July.
“We’ve really moved in our positions and proposals and tried to negotiate,” he said.