Reuters Canada: Late semester strike threatens Ontario students
A province-wide strike by Ontario’s community college teachers is threatening the academic year of more than 150,000 students in the province, a student association said on Monday. Tyler Charlebois of the College Students Alliance said the prospect of students losing the academic year is “quite real” because of the strike’s critical timing with less than two months left in the school year. “When you get into week three and four of a strike, that’s when you cut into time needed to cover remaining (course) material before April exams,” he said.
CTV: Union can’t guarantee students’ year: negotiator
A teachers’ union says it’s up to Ontario’s College Relations Commission to ensure a strike by 9,100 faculty doesn’t jeopardize the students’ year. Ontario Public Service Employees Union negotiator Ted Montgomery says teachers can’t promise students they won’t lose their year because of the week-old strike. Montgomery says it’s up to the commission, an independent body, to advise the government when the students’ year is in jeopardy.
OPSEU: Bad faith: OPSEU takes employer to the College Relations Commission
Union bargaining team chair Ted Montgomery made the announcement to a packed news conference this morning. On March 6, in the final hour of negotiations, having tabled nothing in five days of bargaining, the management bargaining team tabled a position at that crucial stage that was an offer that they knew could not lead and would not lead to a settlement. Its purpose was not to settle, not to move ahead, but rather to force and provoke the strike that weíre now on.
Toronto Sun: College strike in deadlock
School’s still out today for 150,000 Ontario college students as their striking instructors enter day seven of a provincewide strike. The provincial association of colleges and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents 9,100 faculty members, are at loggerheads and no new negotiations are scheduled. “We’re still very disappointed that after a week with students not in the classroom, that neither side has made any movement toward putting themselves back at the table,” said Tyler Charlebois of the College Student Alliance, which represents 100,000 full-time students in Ontario.
London Free Press: College studies summer option
Fanshawe College may extend the school year into summer to make up lost time from a strike by staff, a college spokesperson said yesterday. A summer session is just one of the options being considered to ensure students do not lose their year, Emily Marcoccia said yesterday.
Toronto Star: Students may face weekend classes
Ontario college students, now losing classes because of a teachers’ strike, may be forced to go to school on Saturdays and Sundays to make up for lost time if the dispute drags on. Insisting all will be done to ensure more than 150,000 students complete their semester before summer, Ontario Public Service Employees Union bargaining chair Ted Montgomery said the term may be extended by a week, the exam period shortened and both days of the weekend used for classes. “I know that’s not comfortable for students and neither is it for faculty,” Montgomery told reporters at a news conference. “But I’m not suggesting, and I don’t understand the colleges to be suggesting, that there are plans to extend into summer.
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