College President takes aim at OPSEU
Posted Sep 9, 2011 04:12:55 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The President of Conestoga College is taking aim at OPSEU after the union released a letter threatening workers considering strike breaking.
The letter threatens support staffers with having to turn wages earned while crossing the picket-line over to the union, suspended membership, removal from the union office, and their name recorded on a central public registry.
This has led President of Conestoga College, Dr. John Tibbits, to speak out. “All I did was send out a letter saying ‘look, as a matter of fact, you have a legal right (to cross the picket line) it’s your decision.’ I mean, we’re not encouraging anyone to come across, but you have a legal right.” Tibbits tells 570 News.
Tibbits adds that if the union tries to sue any picket line crosser, he will see to it their legal bills are covered.
Meanwhile, First Vice-President Treasurer of OPSEU, Eddy Almeida, tells 570 News an employee could face being a union member in bad standing, should they break the line, “but has OPSEU ever done that? We have not. The local here, that scabs history, or what they had done towards the workers at this campus, that would be in the memory of the workers here”.
Almeida adds that a “scab” is a “scab for life,” saying, once you cross the picket-line, it becomes a stigma that follows you.
While mediators are in constant contact with both the union and colleges, there is no indication as to when bargaining will resume.
570’s Mike McCulloch was at Conestoga College today…
