Strike-related terminations cause controversy

On Monday, October 3, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union ran an advertisement in the London Free Press. The advertisement read, "Reinstate fired workers at Fanshawe College," and was printed in an effort to gain public support for their cause.

During the recent OPSEU support staff strike, five part-time employee's positions were terminated at Fanshawe College. Parttime support staff members are not union members and therefore were not on strike. The college issued a notice to all part-time support staff that if they refused to cross the picket line and attend work, their positions would be terminated, which is exactly what happened to these five people.

According to Marg Rae, President of the Local 109 union at Fanshawe, they have tried to have the five positions reinstated by circulating a petition. Rae took the petition with 400 signatures to the Board of Governors meeting, but "they refused to allow us to talk, they had security at the meeting, and told us that if we did not stop talking we would be escorted out, and it's a public meeting," said Rae.

Rae said that three of the five people whose positions were terminated had been full-time support staff with Fanshawe College for over 20 years that had retired, but returned to work part-time. When the strike began, they refused to cross the picket line to show support for their long-time colleagues.

Fanshawe's Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Emily Marcoccia, said because this situation involves personnel information, the college is limited in what they can discuss. She did, however, note that, "This is something that happened provincially … so any decision regarding that action which was taken during the strike or at the onset of the strike has either been made at the provincial level or could be made at the provincial level. Fanshawe was not unique in this, so it wouldn't be Fanshawe's decision."

For Rae, this is an issue that she feels Howard Rundle should be involved in fixing. "We have a very inactive College President, and to me, things have to change on the top because these decisions are far reaching. Getting your picture in the paper and building buildings is one thing, but to actually have good labour relations and (show) that you care about your employees is far more reaching," said Rae.

Rae and the union have issued a formal request to be put on the agenda of the Board of Governors meeting for October and are hopeful that they will have the opportunity to formally discuss the issue and get the five employees' positions reinstated.