St. Lawrence College staff hit picket lines on Kingston campus

Picketers kept watch at each entrance to St. Lawrence College’s Kingston campus on day one of the strike by professors, librarians, instructors and counsellors at Ontario’s 24 Community Colleges.

The union argues faculty should have more academic freedom and they want fewer contract employees, who are paid less and have no job security.

“Equal pay for equal work. It’s such a fundamental concept,” president of OPSEU Local 417 Grant Currie said.

“It’s not rocket science, it’s not anything else. It’s just fairness.”

That is one of the main issues separating the union and the colleges at the bargaining table, and as of now, the two sides remain far apart — with no new negotiations on the horizon.

“There’s no question, the colleges believe that we have a fair offer on the table. That’s consistent with the other offers that have been made in the public sector,” St. Lawrence College President Glenn Vollebregt said.

As for the students, many still showed up to the Kingston campus on Monday, despite not having any classes to attend.

“It seems like a great thing at first. But now it’s kind of hit me like ‘we paid to be here’,” first-year Nursing student Samantha Flynn said.

In fact, she and her fellow classmates returned from reading week with nowhere to go.

“We’re also in residence, so we paid a lot of money to stay here,” first-year Nursing student Celina Fox said. “So it would be nice for us to actually get the education we paid for.”

As both sides dig in their heels, students are getting vocal about the lost class time. Over 16,000 have signed a petition asking for their tuition money back for each day of the strike that passes.

So far, no new contract talks are planned.