College students across Ontario, including those at St Clair College, are spending a second day out of class as faculty at the province’s 24 community colleges enter the second day of a strike.
Chatham Local OPSEU Vice President, Mark Colangelo says while he hopes the dispute will be solved quickly, it’s anyone’s guess at this point.
“Even waiting through the weekend to see if we were going to go on strike, I was expecting the entire time that we would be here teaching on Monday,” Colangelo says. “Unfortunately the sides could not come to a resolution, and I’m hoping it’s a quick resolution where we can get back to work doing what we love.”
Colangelo says faculty just wants to ensure students are getting the education they’ve come to college to receive.
OPSEU is asking for the number of full-time faculty at Ontario colleges to match the number of faculty members on contract, but the colleges say it would cost more than $250 million per year.
At this point, no talks are scheduled between the two sides.