NDP Leader Andrea Horwath voices support for striking Mohawk College faculty in Hamilton

There’s been a solidarity rally on the picket lines at Mohawk College.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was among those on hand Friday afternoon to support striking professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians.

The faculty has been on strike since Monday morning in a job action that has suspended classes and is affecting more than half-a-million students at the province’s 24 colleges.

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OPSEU notes that less than 30 per cent of its striking members are full-time and the union is calling for an end to what Local 240 spokesman Kevin Mackay terms the “exploitation of contract faculty.”

There’s no indication when the two sides might return to the bargaining table.

Horwath says “part-time contract work is not the kind of work you can build a life on”, adding that it “shortchanges” not only the workers but their families and students as well.