Algonquin College staff join Solidarity Day of Action as full-time support strike enters second week

As the clock struck noon on a sunny Friday afternoon, Algonquin College’s striking full-time support staff and colleagues standing in solidarity filled up the Woodroffe Avenue entrance.

Now on strike for over a week, OPSEU has repeatedly voiced its frustrations over provincial funding shortfalls for public colleges and stalled negotiations with the College Employer Council (CEC) over a renewed bargaining agreement.

At the Solidarity Day of Action, OPSEU representatives, members and supporters from the wider campus community gathered to advocate for fair contracts and job security protection for full-time support staff across Ontario’s colleges.

Algonquin was one of 24 other concurrent events that day, with rallies held across Ontario, including Cornwall, Sudbury and Niagara.

Taking the microphone, Veronica Attard, an OPSEU college full-time support staff bargaining team member and a full-time support staff member at the college, thanked those who joined the rally, saying, “Our fight is your fight … If our students don’t have the support, we have no colleges.”

Attard returned to Ottawa after confronting the Minister for Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn in a public event in Cornwall the day before, over his hesitation to bring the CEC to the bargaining table.

At the rally, Attard said the librarians and library technicians at the St. Lawrence College Cornwall campus had been replaced by “vending machines.”

That announcement was met with unison cries of “shame!” among the crowd.

Attard pointed to the Algonquin College’s plans to outsource Food Services and the suspension of many of the college’s programs as further evidence that the province is seeking to defund and privatize post-secondary institutions, blaming an “unprecedented financial crisis.”

In her speech, Algonquin College professor and president of OPSEU Local 415 Tracey Henderson argued that the “crisis” was “manufactured.”

OPSEU claims that the province, under Premier Doug Ford, “has committed $2.5 billion of taxpayer money since 2020” to the Skills Development Fund.

The province describes the fund as “funding to organizations for innovative projects that address challenges to hiring, training, or retaining workers, including apprentices, to drive Ontario’s economic growth.”

But as Ontario colleges suffered 10,000 job cuts, alongside program and campus closures this year alone, Henderson says it isn’t money the province is lacking.

“It’s political will,” Henderson said.

On Sept. 15, the CEC wrote that it believes “The only path forward is for OPSEU’s full-time support staff bargaining team to drop its demands that colleges can never accept, or proceed to arbitration.” The CEC has repeatedly described these priority demands as “poison pills,” preventing an agreement from being reached.

“(They are) poison pills,” Henderson said. “A temporary moratorium on campus closures, job cuts and mergers is the only antidote we have … that will protect our colleges against the Ford government handing over education that we know is proven.”

As full-time support staff members ready themselves for a second full week of strike action, OPSEU bargaining agents like Christine Kelsey, president of OPSEU Local 416, remain intent on negotiating.

The CEC has reportedly offered concessions in wage increases, benefit improvements and “important protections for full-time support staff from job loss due to contracting outside services,” but still sees the union’s priority demands as untenable.

However, Kelsey said CEC bargaining agents left negotiations on Sept. 10 after 4 p.m. and haven’t returned since. They said the CEC is asking to proceed to arbitration, something she rejects.

“We won’t win job security protections through arbitration,” Kelsey said. “What we need is a bargain contract. We want to bargain.”

Until then, picket lines will remain on Woodroffe Avenue, Navaho Drive and across the province, with signs and flags telling the province to “Save Our Colleges.”

“We really appreciate the support from other local (unions) and from community members,” said Kelsey. “All across the province, at various colleges, we’re getting support because people want bargaining to happen.”

Passing commuters honked and cheered on the strikers, while small lines of cars piled up, patiently waiting for the crosswalk to clear between speeches.

Police liaisons were present, but the event remained positive and peaceful.

Looking at her colleagues and union supporters, Henderson finished her speech by rallying the crowd.

“Ontarians deserve affordable, accessible, quality education,” Henderson said.

“We need to send a message that we are not for sale and every student in Ontario is valuable, is necessary, should be lifted up, not just those who are the most valuable.

“If we stand in solidarity, we will have our messages heard. We will affect change in our province.”