On the line: week 3 Oct 30 – Nov. 3 (updated regularly)

This week started off briskly with a flying picket rally at a downtown hotel in Toronto on top of the pickets at our campuses.

We also had representatives at Bill 148 hearings and are awaiting a report.

Halloween was somewhat festive at the picket lines (see photos to the right), but it also brought Don Sinclair, chair of the CEC, out of hiding as he spoke with Matt Galloway on CBC's metro morning (along with RM Kennedy who is chair of our Divisional Executive at OPSEU).  Please listen to the discussion here.  There is much that is revealed in the interview, and the CEC position is becoming clearer as the strike goes on.  What is not clear is whether the government and whether the college presidents actually support the vision of college education that Don Sinclair is espousing.

It looks like there are only two ways to break the impasse:  The first is that bargaining will actually begin, and the second is that we will be legislated back to work.  In order that these happen we need to pressure the provincial government.

As I write this the message came through that our bargaining team and the CEC will be back at the table tomorrow (during the rally).  We can only hope that the CEC will not prolong the strike by continuing to play with numbers and play games rather than bargain in earnest.