Striking support staff at St. Clair College are holding an information picket today at the south Windsor campus. The picket is impacting the college’s entrance off Highway 3. Vehicles entering the campus are dealing with delays as they’re being held up for 30 seconds to two minutes as striking staff provide information about the labour dispute. Arslan Malik is a student at the college and was stuck in traffic for 20 to 30 minutes. He said he was late for class. “It’s been very frustrating,” he said. “You know, sometimes I’m trying to turn, and then there’s just people walking in front of me. There’s a lot of honking too, right, and it annoys me and stuff.” Malik said inside the college, he hasn’t noticed anything different during the strike. “It’s been really like the same,” said Malik. “I just go to my classes, and my teachers are all there; that’s really it.” The information picket is not impacting the college’s entrance off Cabana Road. Last Thursday, the striking members were joined by representatives from Lambton College in Sarnia and Fanshawe College in London for a day of action at the South Windsor campus. Entrances were blocked off, causing traffic delays and the cancellation of all classes for the day. There are 193 full-time support staff at St. Clair College, who are represented by OPSEU Local 137. They’re part of the 10,000 full-time support staff from Ontario’s 24 publicly funded colleges who walked off the job on September 11 after the two sides failed to reach a new collective agreement. Improved wages, benefits, and job security are the key issues in negotiations.
