Week 2, Day Three: Rally Day
Dear Sheridan Faculty,
They’re talking about us in the Ontario Legislature (see first link on our website) and today we stopped traffic on 900 Bay Street. A few thousand of us confronting the Ministry obelisk of a building on Bay Street. Rally cries through megaphones, “Whose street is it?” and hundreds within earshot answer “Our Street”. Before the speeches, the Faculty crowds were picketing around the whole Wellesley, Bay Street Ministry block. It was like our campus pickets, just bigger, much bigger. I kept running into Sheridan colleagues, must have been sixty or seventy of us – it was a joy to take part with them and our colleagues from across the GTA.
This is my fourth, four out of four, college strike. It is the first time that our cause overlaps with government legislative and social initiatives, Bill 148, and fairness in the workplace for part-time workers. We made the news on all Toronto news programs tonight. Perhaps this resonance with a popular theme will help our cause. Our cause of course, is our students. More full-time professors will mean more time for teachers to spend with students, in person and online.
With the numbers of students needing accommodation increasing, with the ubiquitous office hours created by online platforms, including social media, our jobs are demanding more of us all. And certainly, a professor can’t grow professionally travelling between colleges trying to eke out a living teaching six to eight courses. Part-time faculty have full-time families to support. Full-time students need full-time teachers.
There’s no time for reflection, no time or opportunity for curriculum development, no chance to develop cooperative professional relationships for our contract faculty. They have limited time to join groups to which to add their ingenuity, to be inspired by group dynamics, no time or opportunity to develop new pedagogic strategies and better lesson plans with their program colleagues. Therefore, the students are the biggest losers. When the majority of Ontario’s college students are taught by part-time, precarious work victims of a corporate educational structure, education suffers. Ontario’s children and their futures are short changed.
So, our goals resonate with the public’s interest. We will be monitoring the news coverage. Check out the media stories on a new feature on our website, ready tomorrow. Check out our new twitter feed https://twitter.com/local244, and blogspot https://opseu-local244.
“Whose Street Is It?”
“Our Street”!
In solidarity,
Jack
Jack Urowitz,
President, OPSEU Local 244
Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
(905) 845-9430 Extension 2832
Union Office 4065
(905) 845-9430 Extension 2832
Union Office 4065