Leftenant Commander's Log - Date 2006.03.10

Well...as you've heard by now, all 24 colleges within the province of Ontario are currently on strike. As of March 7th (this past tuesday), all full time faculty teachers in all 24 Ontario colleges were officially on strike. According to the news (primarily the Whig and TO Star), that puts about 150,000 students out of class. The majority of the students who attend St. Lawrence were just coming off of their winter break, which started at the end of February.

On February 7th, the teachers had a vote to see how much they favoured a strike. While the individual college votes ranged from approximately 70% to the high 90th percentiles, the total vote for all faculty was set at 80.4%. So, on Tuesday, there were picketers picketing at the entrances of St. Lawrence College (one on Portsmouth, and one on Country Club Drive), delaying entering drivers for anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minutes. Sometimes it was to share information, other times it was simply to delay people. I think one of their goals was to provide a minor annoyance that would help spur on talks. However, I've heard that talks won't be beginning for at least another week.

Here's what I've heard about the talks and negotiations that have been happening thus far.

As of September 2005, most, if not all, of the full time faculty members' contracts were up and expired and it was time to renegotiate for new ones.

Talking with teachers, staff, and reading the news, the main issue is less about wages (management went so far as to offer up to 14% in salary increases, but that was still rejected), and more aboutwhat they call "education quality". Or rather, classroom sizes. I believe that they do not want classrooms to get larger, thus increasing the student:teacher ratio.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I don't think it'd be a problem to increase class sizes to university sized classrooms for classes that can be taught straight out of the textbook. On the other hand, for classes that have to use practical equipment (technology, medical, science etc), the equipment must be available to the students to use when they can to provide adequate learning.

Since classes are cancelled until further notice, I am working part time at the college on my student bursary position. This means crossing the picket line. This normally would seem like a problem if not for the fact that I take the bus and basically walk onto College property. Because of the strike, the buses stop and drop their passengers off right on Portsmouth Avenue, which is the street across from the college's main entrance. This location is usually at the dropoff exit place and since the picketers only picket the entrances, I don't encounter them; at least I haven't yet.

Before the winter break (which would end on the eve of the strike), I was talking with my full time teachers, who indicated that they were not in favour of striking (though not directly it was still rather obvious). One of them was willing even to settle for less than management had offered in favour of averting a strike.

Two years ago, when I was almost finished my first year (in December), our teachers voted 60% in favour of a strike. The night before the deadline, they struck a deal and class went on as normal...as if nothing ever happened. New contracts were made and deals were signed. Now those contracts have expired and they have been unable to negotiate a deal.

...That's all for now...I might have more to say later on...