Sault College students affected by faculty strike (5 photos)

Approximately 12,000 Ontario community college professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), including those at Sault College, went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Monday, affecting classes for college students right across the province.

“I left Edmonton, Alberta to come to school here, not just to come to school in Sault College, but to Ontario, because I feel the schools here in Ontario are better,” said Sault College student Rik Lam, speaking to SooToday as striking faculty strolled past the college with picket signs.

“For me to wake up today and not be able to go to school, it hurt me a lot.”

Lam is a student in Sault College’s Pre-Health Sciences program.

“I’ve been to school for two months now and for this to happen already, it is very disappointing,” Lam said. 

“They had all summer to figure this out. Why now? Mid-term exams are coming up. Now is not a good time, we’ve already paid for our classes.”

Lam said he appreciates his teachers have told him school assignments will be put online while the strike is on, but said “I don’t think that should be the way for us to be learning," said Lam, who is also a member of the Sault College Cougars basketball team.

“I love basketball, but I’m here for an education.”

“Part of the reason we’re doing this at this time of the year is because we had to negotiate until Oct.1, because Sept. 30 was the end of our contract, so in fact we could have gone on strike earlier, on Oct. 1, but we were trying negotiate and work with the employer, we’ve put forward offers of settlement but we’ve basically been rejected at every pass,” said Frank Turco, of OPSEU Local 613.

“The impact (on the employer, to strike now) would be far better at this point,” Turco said.

“We’re doing this for the students and faculty of the future, we’re trying to address the issues with respect to fair pay for fair work,” Turco said.

OPSEU has stated the main issue is not so much about pay, but demands for a 50:50 ratio in the number of full-time faculty to the number of faculty members on contract, more job security for part-time faculty and more academic control for faculty over how education is delivered.

Turco told SooToday he has seen the number of full-time faculty decrease at Sault College from approximately 300 to 117 over the course of the 35 years he has been associated with Sault College.

Turco dismissed assertions by the College Employer Council (the bargaining agent for Ontario’s 24 community colleges in reaching collective agreements with unionized staff) that OPSEU’s demands are too costly, criticizing Sault College’s missions to recruit foreign students as less than profitable, stating money could have been better spent here at home.

A news release from the College Employer Council released Oct. 15 stated OPSEU’s demands “are unaffordable. The Colleges offered faculty a 7.75 per cent salary increase over four years (raising new full-time faculty maximum to $115,378) but OPSEU has asked for nine per cent over three years.”

The Council and Sault College administration added “the union’s demand for a staffing quota is unrealistic and does not take into account student needs and program and operational requirements. Generalized quotas don’t work. OPSEU has demanded a staffing ratio guarantee. At Sault College we currently have 76 percent of our teaching hours delivered by unionized faculty and of that number most are full-time.”

“(OPSEU’s) demands remain unaffordable by ultimately adding more than $250 million annually through salary increases and staffing ratios. Moving to a staffing ratio would increase costs through new positions and reduce the colleges’ flexibility in meeting the programming needs of our students.”

In response to OPSEU’s demands for more academic control over delivery of education by faculty members, the Council stated “faculty are critical to academic decision making but they are not the exclusive voice. Our programs require consistent delivery to meet provincially mandated standards and the requirements of accreditation bodies and industry partners.”