Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watcgl!watnext!mark
From: mark@watnext.waterloo.edu (Mark Earnshaw)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Community College Teachers on strike
Message-ID: <12258@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: 10 Nov 89 22:57:52 GMT
References: <606@alias.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@watcgl.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: mark@watnext.waterloo.edu (Mark Earnshaw)
Distribution: ont
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 56

In article <606@alias.UUCP> kpicott@alias.UUCP (Socrates) writes:

[TEXT DELETED IN AN ATTEMPT TO REDUCE NET BANDWIDTH]

>Will someone from the teacher's side please explain to me what possible
>justification they could have for doing this?  (Last time this almost
>happened it was the government that stopped it from happening, not the
>teachers, if I have my facts straight.)



No one else seems to be responding to this yet and most if not all of the
college teachers probably don't have access to the net right now (or even a
computer terminal) so I'll throw in my $0.02 worth.  My father happens to be
one of those walking the picket line, and I've got most of my information from
him since there doesn't seem to have been much in the news (DISCLAIMER: the
only newspaper I read is the Saturday Globe & Mail).

The strike began on October 18 so has been going on for 3.5 weeks now.  As far
as I know, the main issue is that of salaries.  Currently, the maximum possible
salary for a college teacher is below that of every school board in the province
(secondary and elementary).  Either we're overpaying the sec./ele. teachers or
underpaying the college teachers (take your pick).  There was also a rumour that
they were trying to steal some of the accumulated sick leave days, but I don't
know if that's true or not.

Before they walked out, there were rumours from the president of the college
(the one where my father works) that they were preparing for a long strike, and
that seems to be what has happened.  There don't sound to be any talks going on
or even the intention of holding any talks.  Both sides are probably waiting for
the government to do something, but David Peterson seems to have maintained his
popularity by refraining from doing anything.  Maybe he expects to get more
votes from the teachers than the students (based on my experience, university
students have a very low turn-out at the polls).

I agree that I would certainly not want to be a college student faced with the
prospect of losing a whole year.  However, my father is also losing about
$1000 per week (before taxes, probably much less afterwards!) so neither side is
really winning (the colleges maybe since they don't have to pay the teachers).

What I see as a solution to the problem would be for the government to get
involved which they should have done already.  Rather than see the students
lose their year, I would rather that the government legislate the teachers back
to work and then begin mediating contract talks.  Since the two sides aren't
talking to each other now, someone has to take some action or they'll still be
on strike next spring.

One additional note.  I seem to recall that the strike vote was only about 55%
so a lot of the teachers don't really want to be on strike.  That's one reason
why I think that legislating the teachers back to work would not cause as much
bad feeling as the previous time (that worked out okay in the end since the
teachers ended up getting what they wanted in mediation).

Anyway, that's all that I know along with some of my opinions.  If anyone else
has additional info or corrections or even their own opinions, feel free to
post.