The College Strike

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity of teaching at a community college in Ontario for 6-7 years. It was not something that I had planned to do - it was not a lifelong dream - but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to do it. There were days when it was really hard work, times when teaching students who were not interested in me or the course material made teaching a two-three hour lesson boring for both me and them. There were a few weeks every semester when my life was consumed by marking endless papers; the whining of students who could not get their work handed in on time was annoying and inputting marks into the computer always seemed to be far too complicated. But in general, being at the college was fun. There were usually enough students to make the classes interesting, my colleagues were friendly and generally helpful, the administrative interference was minimal (actually almost non-existent)  and the pay was extraordinary. I am so glad that I am not teaching there now.

For the past five weeks, the full and part time staff at Ontario colleges have been on strike. While it is not clear as what all of the root causes of the strike were (it really depends whose information one reads), the end result is that over half a million college students have lost five weeks of schooling because approximately 20,000 teachers and other professionals attached to the colleges have not been able to come to an agreement with their bosses. I appreciate the fact that unions have, in the past, provided a vital service to their communities by fighting for pensions, benefits and safe working conditions. I recognize that without working men and women risking their employment and in some cases their lives to ensure that a person could make sufficient money to support their families, all of us would be so much worse off, but in this particular case I am not too sure if unions have provided a valuable service to their community.

The union says it is not about money. In fact the raises that the teachers will get over the next few years are minimal - they look to be about what our inflation rate is. There are some minimal increases in the benefit package and some changes in the language about hiring of partial and part time staff. Having said that, it should be noted that someone who teaches between 6 and 12 hours a week of classroom time (called partial load) can earn up to $154.00 an hour. Those staff do not get paid for class prep, marking or attending office hours. I always figured that for every hour of class room time, I spent an hour getting ready or marking. Still -$76.00 an hour is pretty good pay.

I must confess I do not understand the issue of academic freedom within the college setting. I personally never felt the slightest bit of concern from any of the program coordinators or deans that I worked under. This was in spite of the fact that most of them knew that I was somewhat assertive in discussing social issues from a somewhat left-leaning socialist perspective. In fact there were times when I knew students were uncomfortable/upset at the material I was presenting (it was sociology - they were suppose to get a bit shaken up) and I thought that it would have been legitimate for the administration to at least ask me about it - they never did.

Regardless of the issues that needed to be worked out - it is absurd and more importantly unjust that a small group of people get to dislocate the lives of  a very large group of people. There are countless thousands of students who have had their lives significantly dislocated: those who were suppose to graduate this fall and who now have no accommodation as they thought they would be finished, those who need to work during the Christmas break to pay for their books but now can't because classes will run into Christmas week and resume right after New Years, those who are from out of country and perhaps bought plane tickets to go home and now can't use them, students who were struggling and now after five weeks just won't come back. The list of who had been impacted just goes on and on and none of them will get anywhere near the rewards that the college teachers will get.

There are some complicated and critically important issues that need to be resolved - most important is the issue of hiring people on contracts without any job security or benefits - but a strike will never resolve that issue. That is a legislative/financial issue. While certainly reducing administrative costs (i.e. getting rid of some positions) would save some money, the only real solution is to increase the subsidies which means increasing taxes. I do not think there is public support for that.

The strike is absurd and unjust because an elite (most colleges require their teachers to have at least one if not two university degrees) group of people who already make more than many, have held hostages mostly young people who may never come close to the level of job security that the college staff have. Unions have lost sight of their origins. They are not setting the groundwork for the common working man - they are only making sure that they maintain their own level of security. That is selfish.

The system may need to change - but as usual, it should not be at the cost to those who can least afford it.

P.s the one group of teachers who are the least secure, poorest paid and without benefits will pay the high price. Contradict/sessional staff have not been paid for five weeks and will not benefit from any pay increases or extended benefits.