Students present 4,000-name petition to college, faculty.
Graeme McNaughton, right, leads a group of student protesters outside Humber College's faculty union office to present Orville Getz, OPSEU Local 562 president, with a petition with the names of 4000 students from across the province.
Staff photo/JORDAN MAXWELL
Graeme McNaughton, creator and leader of the "All-Ontario walkout", stood in front of Humber College's bookstore Tuesday, Jan. 12, attempting to rally all students who oppose the possibility of a faculty strike.
With a brown envelope in hand, sealed with 4,000 signatures from college students across Ontario, he led the group to both the faculty union and VP of Finance and Administration offices to present the petition and make a final plea.
"We just want you to think about the students," said McNaughton.
The "All-Ontario walkout" began as a Facebook group created by McNaughton to rally students from 13 Ontario colleges against a faculty strike. Students have been pledging their support through the social networking site.
Brennon Thompson, a second year radio-broadcasting student at Humber, said students are being left out of the equation.
"I understand that people need to get paid but we need an education," Thompson said. "I think it's really unfair to us."
A strike could see 9,000 full and part-time college faculty, represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), walk off the job as soon as Feb. 1.
Tuesday's rally expected to attract over 270 students but turned out only about 10.
Nevertheless, the small battalion walked to the faculty union office where McNaughton handed over the petition to Orville Getz, president of OPSEU local 562.
The group then headed down to the office of Humber's president to hand a second copy of the petition.
Though president John Davies was not present in his office, the protestors took their case to Rani Dhaliwal, VP of Finance and Administration at Humber. Dhaliwal welcomed the group and assured them that their concerns were being taken into consideration.
Humber Student Federation (HSF) president Shugufa Kaker said that she is happy to see that students are taking a stand.
"Students are doing this for the right reasons and I don't think (faculty) should strike," Kaker said. "Both sides should go back to the table and negotiate."
Antonio Pileggi, a first-year general arts and science student and protestor, said that although the strike would give him more time to find work, education is his first priority.
"Without education, we're nothing," Pileggi said.
Meanwhile, Getz said he understands the concerns of students but added that calling the vote was the only way to get the union back to the table to re-negotiate their contract.
Getz also said that the faculty strike vote is set to take place Wednesday, Jan. 13 at both the North and Lakeshore campuses from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to this, faculty members will also be able to vote at 110 Carrier Dr. from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Getz said.
Getz and a representative from the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) and Humber will supervise the vote.
The vote is preliminary, meaning that if there is any dispute against it, the vote will be recounted. The OLRB has up to two weeks to recount the vote making that deadline for Jan. 27.
According to Getz, faculty will be able to strike as of Monday, Feb. 1.
He added that the results from the vote will be posted on OPSEU's website - www.opseu.org - and Humber's website.