The Durham Chronicle - 2017-12-12

Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca December 12 - 18, 2017 The Chronicle 3
Faculty strike: What happened?
Aly Beach and
Cassidy McMullen
The Chronicle
College faculty are still without a
contract after a five-week strike,
the longest in Ontario history,
ended Nov. 20. Currently, faculty
are operating under their old contract
while waiting for mediation
to begin with the colleges.
In early July, the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union
(OPSEU), which represents college
faculty, started negotiations with
the Ontario colleges’ bargaining
team, the College Employer Council.
By Aug. 28, the two sides were
deadlocked.
That day, OPSEU set a vote on
Sept. 14 for faculty to give them the
ability to call a strike. Sixty-eight
per cent of faculty voted in favour
Photograph by Cassidy McMullen
of strike action.
OPSEU and the council went Durham College faculty on the Oshawa campus during the first day of the strike Oct. 16.
back to the bargaining table at
that point but were still unable
to get around key issues involving Zwiers said.
five-day strike notice hoping that conceivably, with these temporary
academic freedom and contract Durham College president Don it could jump-start the negotiations full time. So, they’d be working
faculty.
Lovisa, said colleges would like to since the contract of college faculty full-time hours, but getting paid
The main concern, which became
have more full-time faculty but On-
expired Sept. 30.
at the partial-load rate. There
the focus of the strike, was tario colleges are under-funded by The two sides made no progress, would be no job security beyond
contract faculty.
the government.
both giving each other last offers the semester they’re teaching. And
“We can’t continue to have this “This is a chronic under-funding
before the strike started Oct. 16. entirely at the discretion of the col-
high level of contract faculty,” said
problem,” Lovisa said. “So it OPSEU wanted a 50-50 ratio of leges to whether or not they even
Nicole Zwiers, president of OPSEU puts a lot of pressure on the college contract faculty to full-time faculty need them.” Said Zwiers
Local 354, representing faculty, system to find efficiencies through and the council made a new type of For the first three weeks of the
counsellors and librarians at Durham
your staff. Sixty-five per cent of my temporary full-time position to try strike, the two sides did not talk.
College.
budget is my staff. So, you have to and reduce the number of contract On Nov. 2 the College Employer
Contract faculty make up 81 per find efficiencies and unfortunately workers.
Council came back to the table and
cent of college faculty and not only that forces us to hire part-time “They would be eliminating the the two sides spent the weekend negotiating.
are the jobs insecure, but they are staff.”
need to hire anyone full time. Because
also paid less for the same work, On Oct. 10, OPSEU gave its
they could simply go forever, OPSEU said they were getting
DC workers react to strike
close to agreement when the council
forced faculty to vote on the offer
faculty had already rejected via
their strike vote.
It took 10 days to organize and
carry out the vote. Ninety-five per
cent of college faculty voted on the
new contract and 86 per cent voted
against it.
At this point, college faculty had
been striking for five weeks and the
provincial government stepped in.
Back-to-work legislation was
pushed through Queen’s Park
over a rare weekend sitting with
the NDP being the only party opposing
the proposal. They were
concerned about infringing on the
faculty’s right to strike but by Nov.
20 faculty were back to school organizing
and planning for the rest
of the semester. Students returned
to school on Nov. 21.
Arbitrator William Kaplan will
begin mediation with the two sides
Dec. 12. Both OPSEU and the
council will fill Kaplan in on background
information on the issues
they are facing. He will meet with
OPSEU on Dec. 14 and the council
on Dec. 15, says OPSEU.
Between Dec. 16-17 the two sides
and Kaplan will come together and
discuss a new agreement.
If they can still not come to a
resolution, the mediation will turn
into arbitration.
Kaplan will settle the unresolved
matters and give the two sides a
new, legally binding collective
agreement says OPSEU.
Arbitration starts January if the
two sides cannot come to an agreement.
Chronicle reporters asked Durham College employees, faculty for their thoughts on the five-week strike
Riley King
Peggy Forbes
Jim Ferr
Marni Thornton
Oliver Fernandez
Dwayne Christo
Media Loans Assistant,
School of Media,
Art and Design
Aboriginal Student
Advisor
Technical Coordinator/Service
Specialist,
School of Media,
Art and Design
Full-time professor
and Coordinator
of Music Business
Management
Photography and Video
Support Specialist, School
of Media, Art and Design
Lead Faculty Attendant
of Department of
Athletics
Q: What was the attitude
among students here (at
DC’s media loans department)
while you were working
three hours every day?
A: “Everyone was venting
and coming in to give their
two cents. Most of the time
everyone was upset. Some
people didn’t mind the time
off but some people were a
lot more heated.”
Q: How did you feel about
the strike?
A: “As support staff, we
were on strike just over six
years ago and it’s not like
you want to go on, you
know what I mean, but it’s
a you have to kind of thing,
right? I felt really bad
crossing the line during
this strike, but then I have
to work as well and, they
crossed the line during
ours. It’s like two different
sides of the house, support
and faculty."
Q: What advice did you
give to your daughter (a
current DC student) during
the strike that you would
like to give to DC students
now?
A: “Stick with it, I went
through the same thing in
the 80’s as a college student
… life is stressful, we’ll get
through.”
Q: Do you think that
everything will pick back
up?
A: “I think we’re just, I’m
at least, business as usual,
picking up where I left off.
We had to adjust some due
dates for assignments, but
otherwise, the students
seem pretty cool with
it. I’m fine with it. [The
semester’s] going to be as it
should have been.”
Q: How did you feel about the
strike?
A: “I felt bad for the faculty
and for the students, and you
know and also it does affect
me because I am part of the
whole, I like to feel that I am
a part of the whole academic
learning environment. Although
I am not in front of the
classroom I am supporting the
students, I am supporting the
faculty and when they’re not
around, you know, I just, I feel
bad for both sides. I want to
support the faculty.”
Q: Did the sports teams
keep playing during the
strike?
A: “[During the strike]
The training of varsity
teams still continued. Their
training was done at night,
so they never had to be
impacted by the picketers
and the strikes, and we
still had home games and
we still had teams travel
to play other schools. That
wasn’t impacted, by our
standpoint.”