Strike enters second week

By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express

Classrooms at Durham College once remain empty this week as the school’s faculty strike continues.

Around 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians walked off the job Oct. 16 after OPSEU, the union representing faculty, failed to reach a new deal with the College Employee Council (CEC).

The strike has resulted in eight days of cancelled classes for 500,000 students, including 11,000 at Durham’s Oshawa and Whitby campuses.

Nicole Zwiers, president of OPSEU Local 354, which represents staff at Durham, says negotiations are not scheduled to resume this week.

“Things are really at a standstill,” Zwiers says. “We are willing to return to the table, but there has been no indication from the employer.”

The CEC has stated its final offer remains on the table, and that yielding to union requests would add $250 million in costs and eliminate thousands of jobs.

OPSEU is asking for a 50:50 ratio in the number of full-time and contracted jobs and more academic freedom for professors.

Naqi Hyder, an officer with Durham College Students Inc., the college’s newly established student government body, says the strike is “raising a number of questions and concerns” among the student population.

“I think a lot of students just want school to go back to the way it was, so they can have their regular schedule back,” Hyder says adding students are also worried about whether they will be reimbursed by OSAP for missed classes due to the strike.

An online petition demanding refunds has been signed by more than 100,000 students across the province.

Last week, student leaders from a number of colleges asked the provincial government to intervene in the situation, but there has been no indication this will happen.