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Crossing the line

Lakehead University’s student union president is encouraging Northern Ontario School of Medicine students to cross picket lines if a strike is still ongoing by the school’s orientation week.
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Terry Oja (left) and Shanna Duff walk the picket line near Lakehead University on Tuesday. (Jeff Labine, tbnewswatch.com)

Lakehead University’s student union president is encouraging Northern Ontario School of Medicine students to cross picket lines if a strike is still ongoing by the school’s orientation week.

More than 150 NOSM administrative, technical and clerical staff walked off the job Monday and continued to picket at both the Lakehead and Laurentian University campuses Tuesday. Representatives with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents the university staff now on strike, said some of the main issues that led to a strike were number of hours of worked, overtime, sick leave, family leave and wages.

Michael Snoddon, president of the Lakehead University Student Union, said they plan to inform the students to cross the picket lines if they feel comfortable doing so. With 500 students on campus, he said the strike wouldn’t impact the school year if an agreement wasn’t reach by the beginning of the fall semester.

"Right now there isn’t much of an impact other than Thunder Bay Transit not crossing the picket line," Snoddon said. "Students have to stop at the Agora circle and walk into campus. Other than that, we just expect a little bit of a delay (while crossing the picket line) so the picketers can get their message across."

The student union planned a media blitz to inform students of the strike if it continued into orientation week, which is scheduled to start as early as Aug. 23. LUSU plans to have booklets, student handbooks and other information packages detailing the situation available for students at that time.

Snoddon added that students should leave earlier when coming to campus and be respectful to the pickets around the University campus.

Roger Strasser, dean of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, said he encouraged students to attend classes if they felt comfortable with crossing the picket line.

"For those students who do not cross the picket lines, we’re making arrangements as soon as possible for them to make up what they missed," Strasser said. "If they are missing regular classes then there are opportunities for them to sort of catch up the sessions that they missed.

"We have a variety of services electronically and they will be able to share notes and those kinds of things."







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