As strike continues, union suggests students should ask for tuition refund

A union leader says college students should be asking for part of their tuition money back as her members continue to strike.

OPSEU Local 731 vice-president Adaire Conlon said while her members walk the line, students at Confederation College aren’t getting services, such as day care and fitness facilitates, that they and the Ontario public pay for.

 And the longer workers are out on the line, the fewer services students will have available.

"They’re not getting all those services that would also be able to help them in those stressful times," Conlon said outside of Confederation College Friday morning.

She said her members are frustrated and disappointed that management has so far refused a request from the union to go back to the negotiating table. Her members and students are suffering, which Conlon calls a social injustice.

"When nobody’s talking how can you negotiate a collective agreement? This is socially unjust what they’re doing," she said.

Conlon is encouraging students to talk with management and MPPs to get her members working again.

"Those are Ontario tax dollars and they’re being wasted by us being on the line. We need to be in there supporting our students," Conlon said.

Don Sinclair, with the management bargaining team, told the Canadian Press Friday that the colleges wouldn't be willing to return to bargaining until the union got “the big picture."
"Going back to the table to talk about the union's unaffordable positions will not get us a deal," Sinclair reportedly said.

"Unfortunately, the prospects of reaching a negotiated settlement are not positive so long as the union's bargainers do not accept the economic realities."

The Canadian Press also reported Friday that college negotiators would only return to the table if the union scales back demands for a three per cent annual wage increase. Sinclair added that he saw no signs the union was willing to do that.

The colleges are offering 1.5 per cent in each of the first two years and 1.75 per cent in the third year.