Fanshawe College classes cancelled as faculty strike begins

Faculty at Fanshawe College are on the picket line, along with their colleagues at 24 community colleges across Ontario.

Holding signs that read ‘same work, same pay’ striking staff members picketed around the campus Monday after talks between Ontario Public Services Employees Union and the College Employer Council broke down before the midnight deadline.

“We are fighting for quality education for our students. We’re fighting for good, full-time faculty jobs,” said president of OPSEU Local 110 Darryl Bedford.

“We don’t want to be on strike but unfortunately that’s where we are.”

On Monday, classes were cancelled for students at the college but all student services on all Fanshawe campuses will remain open during the strike.

The strike, involving more than 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians, began across Ontario late Sunday after the two sides couldn’t resolve their differences by a deadline of 12:01 a.m. Monday.

Some students have started an online petition demanding a refund for each day of school lost as a result of the strike. As of Monday evening, the petition had received more than 51,000 signatures.

“It seems to be the only thing that the college employer council understands is money,” said Bedford. “Maybe if the students demand their money back, maybe that will get the council back to the table and negotiating seriously.”

Both sides say there are currently no talks scheduled to end the dispute.

“This is the fourth year of my program so if this semester is pushed then our graduation might be pushed which means we might not have opportunities to get jobs starting in the summer, so I think most of my classmates are concerned about that,” said Audrey Lamesse, a fourth-year biotechnology student at Fanshawe.

The union presented a proposal Saturday night that called for the number of full-time faculty to match the number of faculty members on contract but the colleges say it would add more than $250-million in costs each year.

OPSEU bargaining team chair JP Hornick says the union remains ready to get back to negotiations.

With files from The Canadian Press