U of G support staff could strike
Posted Sep 7, 2011 02:43:20 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Support staff at the University of Guelph could be on strike tomorrow.
Wendy Morley, President of the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 4120, is at the bargaining table today. She tells 570 News that 900 administrative, technical and teaching support staff want to negotiate a new collective agreement with the university. Over the last several days they have expressed concern that, rather than negotiate meaningfully, the university is demanding unnecessary concessions that could provoke a strike.
Morley says the government came out last spring with some regulations to give the University of Guelph some solvency relief. They have to achieve one of four things in order to receive that relief. Three of those things are concessions to the workers, one is not. Morley says the USW recognizes there is a problem, and wants to come up with a solution that will be as economical as possible for her members and still not be an added cost for the University. She says the school is, “just caught up in the concessions loop, and will not commit to a solution.”
Morely says there may well be some disruptions to classes and students. A lot of her members do prep work for the labs, and some of them teach. However, she says the students are completely behind them.
She adds that if they end up on strike, it’s totally unnecessary. The solutions are there, this is not about money it’s about protecting worker’s future. According to Morley, “they already have very low pension, so to have the lowest paid people on the campus to have pension concession seems fundamentally wrong.”
The university issued a statement last week saying that the school would stay open in the event of a strike, and would continue to provide essential services.
