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Jeff Labine, tbnewswatch.com
Adair Conlon (left) and Elaine Kerr stand outside of Confederation College on Aug. 17, 2011.
With negotiations at a standstill, college support staff is on standby for a possible strike.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which has about 280 support staff members at Confederation College, put out a bulletin on their website Monday stating that discussions with management last week were disappointing. The statement also mentioned that members were prepared to walk away from the table if negotiations didn’t improve.
Staff members were told they should not only be prepared, but also expect a strike to happen.
Adair Conlon, vice-president of OPSEU Local 737, said the union will go back to the table next week but so far, there hasn’t been any movement from management since talks began in July.
“Our members are preparing for a strike,” Conlon said. “We’re hoping that we can avoid that at the bargaining table. At this point we’re hoping our team can encourage management to look at our proposals and come to an agreement.”
The union has asked management to look at wages, removing some benefits and dealing with part-time workers replacing full-time positions.
Negotiations have been difficult and it appears that management doesn’t want to bargain, she said.
“We need good jobs in Thunder Bay and without those good jobs we can’t support the community,” she said.
“If we don’t meet a collective agreement by Sept. 1 then we may be in a strike position. The last thing we want to do is impede our students. Students are our number one job and many students work side-by-side with us. We want them to have full-time jobs when they finish their education.”
She added they are looking to have part-time members join the bargaining team.
Confederation College president Jim Madder said he hopes there wouldn’t be a strike, but would do everything possible to support students if there was one.
“We really hope this doesn’t happen and we really hope there’s a settlement,” Madder said.
“From my understanding, settlements in the past have settled in a day or so of the strike date. So we actually don’t know if there is going to be a strike or not, but we hope there isn’t but if there is one we do have some planning here. We will work to try and support our students the best we can.”
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