Colleges across the Province of Ontario were paralyzed on Monday morning when the strike by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) came into effect.
The union represents about 12, 000 full-time and contract faculty workers at colleges in Ontario, including here in Cornwall at St. Lawrence College, which has about 1, 300 students at their campus here in town. The strike has cancelled all classes for the foreseeable future while the teachers take to the picket lines.
Union members are striking for better pay and conditions, which includes a larger say in setting the curriculum and better protection for contract workers. The union had previously rejected an offer from their employer, the College Employers Council, which would have increased their pay by 7.75 percent. The union says that they also want faculty to be 50 percent full-time and 50 percent contract workers.
Glenn Vollebregt, President and CEO of St. Lawrence College, told me in an interview over the phone that in 12 years, students have never lost a semester to a strike and added that “the college has contingency plans in place to make sure that the students don’t lose their semester or their year.” Glenn did not elaborate as to exactly what those contingency plans are to which he was referring.
Some students however feel that through no fault of their own they are now losing some of the financial investment that they have made in higher education.
A petition circulating on Change.org started by Ontario college students is demanding that their institutions refund them some of the money they paid upfront for this semester. The petition states that since an average college semester is 13 weeks, and the average tuition this year was $5, 000 that they should be reimbursed $30 for every day that the strike keeps them out of class.
There are over 500, 000 college students in Ontario, both full and part-time and around 50, 000 of them so far have signed this petition.
I think that the students are absolutely right in asking for their money back. They paid a significant cost up front and the promised experience is not being delivered. Any other business that had to recall a product or cancel a service would be expected to refund their customers for the time they had paid for. These students have paid to be in class right now and they’re not, so whether the strike ends tomorrow or in January, the schools should reimburse their students for everyday of class they fail to deliver.
