Fanshawe’s full time non essential support staff have gone on strike as of Sept. 11.
10,000 full time and 13,000 part time workers are on strike, bring the total to 23,000 affected workers.
Adam Rayfield who is the local 109 Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) president and head of the picket line, shared his thoughts with XFM News.
“Ultimately we hope it achieves a fair and just collective agreement for the next period of term, so that we can get back to our work and back to supporting students.” Says Rayfield.
Rayfield also went on to share this “It’s fundamentally a question of our job security and with that job security it’s the future of student success too. As maybe your listeners are aware, the colleges all 24 of them are going through work force reduction. Those deductions are hurting our numbers. With that decrease, there’s less support staff to support students.”
Fanshawe College declined an interview with XFM news but gave a statement on the strike. The statement we received reads “All Fanshawe campuses will remain open and all scheduled classes, labs and learning activities are proceeding as usual. The College is asking employees, students and the public to be patient and expect delays in being able to cross picket lines to access our campuses.”
