OPSEU rally brings workers together in fight for public education
More than 100 community members and education workers joined Fanshawe support staff workers on their picket line in front of the college Friday, as the union’s strike ended its first week.
Fanshawe College’s over 650 full-time support staff, who are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 109 have been on strike since Sept. 11. The local joins more than 10,000 full-time college support staff across the province in striking for job security measures, an increase to provincial funding in the sector, and to ensure benefits cover things like dental and hearing services.
On Friday, the union was joined by London community members and local labour groups, including London District Labour Council (LDLC), teacher and faculty unions from across the city and the Forest City Solidarity Coalition. On the picket line, the union held speeches and chants in support of the striking workers, with a barbecue, drum circle and marches held throughout.
“When you walk the line, you are holding the line for every single other union,” LDLC President Patti Dalton at the rally on Friday.
OPSEU Local 109 argues that due to administrative and provincial budget cuts, their services are being contracted out to private companies, and their workers are left overworked, understaffed, and undercompensated.
Adam Rayfield, President of the Fanshawe College support staff union, was greatly appreciative of the labour community’s support. “It’s evident we cannot do this alone. You’ve shown up in droves. You’ve shown up daily to lift us up. You can see my emotion — that’s shared by all of our members.”
“I stand with the college [workers] because it is your role that you play to provide the necessary education and experience to make sure that what we have in education will remain for many future generations to come.” said Tina Stevens, First Vice President of the LDLC. “Wages that are not enough to support our families and our children,” Stevens argued, pointing to the unprecedented rates of inflation and the need for adequate financial support.
An Ojibwe woman from Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, Stevens believes that education is a crucial element of reconciliation. “The government is failing to educate our children properly,” said Stevens. “Colleges have to be able to function properly and have the ability to teach our children all across the province in an environment that benefits everyone.”
“We are proud to stand with OPSEU support staff from Fanshawe College and across the province today,” said Johanna Weststar, a professor at Western University and past President of the university’s faculty union. “The work you do and what you are fighting for matters for all of us, defending job security, stable services, support for families, fair benefits. That protects you, the staff whose dedication makes our education system thrive and it also protects the future of post secondary education.”
As a professor who primarily studies labour studies and industrial and labour relations, Weststar spoke about the pressure facing workers in the education sector.
“Our institutions have faced relentless pressure for years. Cuts and chronic underfunding have meant fewer jobs, heavier workloads and growing uncertainty about the future.” she said. According to Westar, the Ford government has long withheld additional long-term funding to address the challenges facing educational institutions province wide, leaving workers left to shoulder the consequences.
“Across every campus, funding is stretched thin. Workloads are rising, job security is treated as optional, rather than a priority.” she said. “This fight is bigger than one contract or one campus. It is about protecting the integrity of our education system, the security of the people who work in it, and the future of post secondary education.”
But the government’s strained relationship with the education sector doesn’t start with post-secondary — Ford’s Ministry of Education has taken over the Thames Valley District School Board and has been discussing removing the democratically-elected school board trustee position altogether.
“This government is reaching out to remove local democracy, which shouldn’t surprise us, after their history and their lack of support for public education,” said Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) District 11 President John Bernans. OSSTF District 11 represents 3,000 teachers and education workers across the Thames Valley district. “This government has consistently and deliberately underfunded education at every level, redirecting public dollars into private interests, eroding trust in our public institutions and pushing families towards privatized alternatives.”
Brenans offered a message of solidarity in his speech: “We stand with workers. We support your fight for increased funding for Ontario’s colleges. We support your demand for better working and learning conditions. We support your resistance against privatization, and above all, we support your call for a fair and just deal.”
This strike is the fourth at Fanshawe College since 2006. Mark Feltham, President of the college’s faculty union has experienced each one, but believes this to be the most important one of them all.
“What we’re witnessing here is the slow motion, real time destruction of public institutions,” said Feltham. He credits his education and livelihood to unions and publicly accessible post-secondary education: “This is exactly what they’re now trying to take out from under us.”
“The youth need to know that this is not what they’re going to get,” said Murilo Trigo, a young professor at Fanshawe and OPSEU Local 110 member. Additionally representing the Forest City Solidarity Coalition, Trigo believes that radical action is needed to ensure that workers rights are respected. He informed the crowd of the need for the labour movement to employ the long-running leftist adage of agitate, educate and organize.
“I imagine you’re all agitated already,” said Trigo. “We can produce more, faster, easier, but we’re working more, getting paid less, and our groceries are more expensive.”
“Education is also redirecting that anger from the agitation, because who’s to blame for all these problems?” Trigo said, explaining that the government and billionaires will use immigrants and other workers as scapegoats for labour issues that they themselves create. “Education is also telling my students, who are tech workers, that they have way more in common with the plumber than they have with the data center owner.”
Luckily for the workers, organization was well underway. Trigo hailed the strong rally turnout as a strong example of mobilization. “Mobilization is great. It gets stuff done, but it is not sufficient — Mobilization needs to be complemented with organization.” said Trigo. “We can only be here today because on the Labor Council and other organizations have been doing this for decades — organizing allows you to retain your victories, to learn from your defeats”
After the lesson, Trigo concluded that the time to put this adage into work was now. “We’re education workers, we all know that the only way to learn is through practice.”
Taylor McIntosh, a two-time community college graduate and OPSEU Local 116 member , thanks college support staff for her career success as a Child and Youth worker at the Children’s Aid Society of London & Middlesex. “Without the supports that I received at Fanshawe College and at Mohawk College, I would not be here today,” said McIntosh, “I know that those supports that I had as a student are the reason that I could get through and build the skills I needed to find a path.”
“What’s at stake with this strike is not just wages and benefits, it’s the very services that are served that our students require to succeed.” she said. “When governments and employers push for privatization of colleges services, they aren’t just cutting costs. They are cutting away the very foundation of our communities.”
Like other speakers, McIntosh believes that the province’s attempts to privatize services is detrimental. “Every time a service is privatized, students lose access to the supports they need to succeed every time work is contracted out, communities like ours lose good, stable jobs that should belong to our neighbors, our friends and our families.” she said. “Instead of public, accountable, high quality support. We see corners cut, fees raised, and opportunities disappearing. Privatization turns education into a commodity, and it robs people of the chance to thrive.”
The college support staff workers’ strike is the second largest mass strike in post-secondary education under Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The largest was in 2022 by 55,000 Ontario education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions walked out with a 96.5 per cent vote in favour of a strike.
Hours after the initial strike notice was given on October 30, the Ford government invoked the notwithstanding clause and announced the introduction of legislation to preemptively take away education workers’ right to strike with Bill 28 which they would then rush through provincial parliament the next day, thus declaring the education workers strike illegal.
The backlash to this bill was swift and immediate. Dozens of unions, rank and file members, and thousands of protesters around the province demanded that the Ford government’s Bill be repealed. The unity across the labour movement in the province was so strong that the Ontario Federation of Labour’s executive board, including LDLC’s own Patti Dalton, voted unanimously for a general strike across the province. Collectively, the movement was successful in getting the government to repeal Bill 28.
As the strike enters its second full week, the London labour community’s support for education workers remains at a high.
In his message to his union’s members, Rayfield shared a heartfelt sentiment of appreciation. “You’ve all shown up with dignity, with purpose and with care for one another,” he said. “I see you all, I value you all, and I’m so thankful you’re here with me.”