Algonquin College students feeling impact of support staff strike

With support staff on the picket lines, students at Algonquin College say they’re starting to see impacts outside the classroom. CTV’s Natalie van Rooy reports.

It’s been just over a week since 10,000 Ontario College support staff walked off the job and students at Algonquin College are starting to feel the impact.

Talks broke down on Sep. 10 and there’s been no sign that both sides will return to the table any time soon. The strike is impacting services on college campuses.

For Devon Eustace at Algonquin’s Ottawa campus, the strike involving college support staff affects her morning commute.

“I take the bus, and the bus routes have been disrupted so it’s a lot longer walk, which I mean, I’m getting my steps in at least,” said Eustace.

Striking college support staff rallied outside the campus on Friday.

“Our most important issue is around job security and we’re trying to get measures in place to stop us from losing jobs,” said Christine Kelsey, the bargaining team chair for Algonquin College’s support staff.

Ten thousand full-time college support staff are on strike, including library technologists, disability services, student success coordinators, food services, and student workers.

The union says the bargaining team for the colleges walked away from the table.

“They want a guarantee that there would be no college merger, campus closures or mergers,” said Graham Lloyd, the CEO of the College Employer Council. “They added them at the last minute on the evening before a mediation. We’ve called them poison pills because we think they’re designed to have no negotiated deal.”

The strike is also affecting services on campus for Eustace and others.

“There’s some services that are closed in the school, like food services,” said Eustace.

A spokesperson for Algonquin College says the Marketplace Food Court in Building D and the 35th Street Market Café in Residence remain open, but other locations are closed, including the Fix Eatery in Building CA and the Tim Hortons in Building A.

“For me it’s transportation, there’s been kind of blockages for some roads so sometimes I see OC Transpo doing some detours,” said Jeremy Sawyer Masse, a student at Algonquin College. “There’s also some stuff that we have to print for a course and there’s been a reduction in the printing because obviously a lot of the employees are on strike right now.”

For those rallying, there’s hope there will be a return to the table soon.

“it’s job security. I have lost a lot of colleagues and I’ve been here about 25 years,” said Jay Timms, an assistive technologist at Algonquin College. “I have never seen so many people go in one shot and those are people who are doing great work. They’re not here and then we still have the workload, so I got a bit of survivor’s guilt for still being here.”

Throughout the strike, there are also picket lines set up at the Ottawa and Perth campus for Algonquin.

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