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The Algonquin Students’ Association has broken its neutrality in the bitter faculty strike in order to support college management.
The association has spent $20,000 on TV and radio ads aimed at faculty, urging them to vote “yes” to an offer from the colleges.
Association president Victoria Ventura says she speaks “on behalf of thousands of students” affected by the strike that began Oct. 16.
“We respect the faculty and we have tried to respect the process,” she says in the ad, also posted on Facebook. “However, a five-week work stoppage has been costly for everyone, especially students. This week, please, vote yes. Let’s get us back to class.”
The vote by about 12,000 professors, partial-load instructors, counsellors and librarians across the province was triggered by the College Employer Council, which exercised its one-time right to bring a contract offer directly to union members. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union has urged its members to vote no. Results of the three-day vote being conducted by the Ontario Labour Relations Board are expected to be known Thursday afternoon.
Ventura says the association’s job is to represent students, and they overwhelmingly want an end to the longest faculty strike in the history of Ontario colleges.
“We see the faculty vote as an opportunity to end the strike.
“Students want to be back in classrooms, and at this point they are so frustrated they don’t really care how that happens.”
The three-day ad blitz was expensive, but the association has the money, says Ventura.
“I can understand how some people could perceive (the ads) as choosing one side over the other,” she says. But she says the association is promoting the interests of students.
“Half a million students’ lives are basically in limbo right now.”
A couple of dozen comments were posted on the students’ association Facebook page, mostly critical of the ads. One person accused the association of “effectively siding with the powers that have taken advantage of faculty for years, and by extension are the ones that actually caused this strike. This students association message does NOT represent us all…Even though I am personally affected I still back the Faculty 100%.”
Wrote another person: ” I stand with the teachers and they deserve the right to vote No. They are not striking for nothing. If they vote yes, this strike will have been absolutely pointless… it’s really hard but this is for the better.”
However, others had no patience for the professors. “Screw respecting either teachers or process,” said one commenter. “Get us the hell back in class. Teachers are only using us for leverage, so why the hell should we care about them?”
Pat Kennedy, president of the Algonquin College union local, said the students’ association has the right to jump into the debate.
“It’s absolutely their call.”
However, Kennedy said he wonders if the association will return some of the fees it has collected from students who have been out of class. “I don’t see any mention of that.
“Are they going to hold on to that money? Are they going to cut the students a cheque?”
Ventura said most services run by the association, including athletic facilities and the Student Commons, have continued. The association closed the student-run college newspaper, which faculty supervise.
Students across the province have called for a tuition refund as the strike eats into their semester. Thousands have signed an online petition, and a class-action lawsuit has been proposed on behalf of college students, asking for tuition and fee refunds for time lost, and full refunds for those who drop out.
Many students have also had to cancel travel plans and incur extra living expenses or give up part-time jobs as the school calendar is changed. Algonquin and La Cité colleges in Ottawa have cancelled most of the Christmas break and extended the fall term into January. La Cité has cancelled the February study break, and Algonquin has warned it may do the same.
There will be some financial relief for students. The province has ordered colleges to put the money they’ve saved on salaries and expenses during the strike into a fund for students facing financial difficulties. Algonquin has promised to consider travel refunds for students who booked trips before the strike began, with details to be posted by the end of the day Wednesday.
It’s up to the province to decide on tuition refunds.
The ads from the Algonquin Students’ Association arrive as both management and the union wage intense lobbying campaigns around the vote. Management says its offer contains improvements for contract staff and a wage increase of 7.75 per cent over four years; the union says the offer includes concessions that will increase the amount of precarious work and fails to give professors enough input into how courses are taught.
The Algonquin Students’ Association, like many across the province, had worked to pressure all sides to end the strike. The association organized a letter-writing campaign to Ottawa-area MPPs, for example, urging them to pressure both union and management.
If faculty members vote “yes” to the management offer, the strike ends and students could be back in class as early as Tuesday.
If the offer is voted down, the strike continues. The two parties could resume negotiations or agree to an arbitrated settlement, said Kennedy.
“The reality is, I guess anything is possible. If that offer gets shot down, (management) has no place to go except back to the table. Or legislation.”
It’s unclear if or how the government would intervene.
Kennedy says the mood among faculty on the picket line is strong. He predicts the management offer will be firmly rejected. “I think they are going to get stamped right into the floor.”
jmiller@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMiller
查看原文...
The association has spent $20,000 on TV and radio ads aimed at faculty, urging them to vote “yes” to an offer from the colleges.
Association president Victoria Ventura says she speaks “on behalf of thousands of students” affected by the strike that began Oct. 16.
“We respect the faculty and we have tried to respect the process,” she says in the ad, also posted on Facebook. “However, a five-week work stoppage has been costly for everyone, especially students. This week, please, vote yes. Let’s get us back to class.”
The vote by about 12,000 professors, partial-load instructors, counsellors and librarians across the province was triggered by the College Employer Council, which exercised its one-time right to bring a contract offer directly to union members. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union has urged its members to vote no. Results of the three-day vote being conducted by the Ontario Labour Relations Board are expected to be known Thursday afternoon.
Ventura says the association’s job is to represent students, and they overwhelmingly want an end to the longest faculty strike in the history of Ontario colleges.
“We see the faculty vote as an opportunity to end the strike.
“Students want to be back in classrooms, and at this point they are so frustrated they don’t really care how that happens.”
The three-day ad blitz was expensive, but the association has the money, says Ventura.
“I can understand how some people could perceive (the ads) as choosing one side over the other,” she says. But she says the association is promoting the interests of students.
“Half a million students’ lives are basically in limbo right now.”
A couple of dozen comments were posted on the students’ association Facebook page, mostly critical of the ads. One person accused the association of “effectively siding with the powers that have taken advantage of faculty for years, and by extension are the ones that actually caused this strike. This students association message does NOT represent us all…Even though I am personally affected I still back the Faculty 100%.”
Wrote another person: ” I stand with the teachers and they deserve the right to vote No. They are not striking for nothing. If they vote yes, this strike will have been absolutely pointless… it’s really hard but this is for the better.”
However, others had no patience for the professors. “Screw respecting either teachers or process,” said one commenter. “Get us the hell back in class. Teachers are only using us for leverage, so why the hell should we care about them?”
Pat Kennedy, president of the Algonquin College union local, said the students’ association has the right to jump into the debate.
“It’s absolutely their call.”
However, Kennedy said he wonders if the association will return some of the fees it has collected from students who have been out of class. “I don’t see any mention of that.
“Are they going to hold on to that money? Are they going to cut the students a cheque?”
Ventura said most services run by the association, including athletic facilities and the Student Commons, have continued. The association closed the student-run college newspaper, which faculty supervise.
Students across the province have called for a tuition refund as the strike eats into their semester. Thousands have signed an online petition, and a class-action lawsuit has been proposed on behalf of college students, asking for tuition and fee refunds for time lost, and full refunds for those who drop out.
Many students have also had to cancel travel plans and incur extra living expenses or give up part-time jobs as the school calendar is changed. Algonquin and La Cité colleges in Ottawa have cancelled most of the Christmas break and extended the fall term into January. La Cité has cancelled the February study break, and Algonquin has warned it may do the same.
There will be some financial relief for students. The province has ordered colleges to put the money they’ve saved on salaries and expenses during the strike into a fund for students facing financial difficulties. Algonquin has promised to consider travel refunds for students who booked trips before the strike began, with details to be posted by the end of the day Wednesday.
It’s up to the province to decide on tuition refunds.
The ads from the Algonquin Students’ Association arrive as both management and the union wage intense lobbying campaigns around the vote. Management says its offer contains improvements for contract staff and a wage increase of 7.75 per cent over four years; the union says the offer includes concessions that will increase the amount of precarious work and fails to give professors enough input into how courses are taught.
The Algonquin Students’ Association, like many across the province, had worked to pressure all sides to end the strike. The association organized a letter-writing campaign to Ottawa-area MPPs, for example, urging them to pressure both union and management.
If faculty members vote “yes” to the management offer, the strike ends and students could be back in class as early as Tuesday.
If the offer is voted down, the strike continues. The two parties could resume negotiations or agree to an arbitrated settlement, said Kennedy.
“The reality is, I guess anything is possible. If that offer gets shot down, (management) has no place to go except back to the table. Or legislation.”
It’s unclear if or how the government would intervene.
Kennedy says the mood among faculty on the picket line is strong. He predicts the management offer will be firmly rejected. “I think they are going to get stamped right into the floor.”
jmiller@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMiller
查看原文...
