06. Carleton support staff on picket line

Carleton support staff on picket line

(The following article is from the September 16-30, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Ontario Bureau

As Ottawa Centre Communist candidate Stuart Ryan's provincial election campaign kicked off in the first week of September, he was walking the picket line in solidarity with 750 administrative, clerical, technical and professional employees. Represented by CUPE 2424, the workers were forced out on strike by their employer, Carleton University.

     "It is not our desire or intention to disrupt our students' programs; it is a consequence of the University's lack of respect for our services, and lack of movement on management's position in bargaining," the union said in a statement on its website.

     According to Carleton's own Office Institutional Research, in 1987 there were 426 academic support staff to support 17,939 students. Today there are only 411 academic support staff to support 24,085 students.

     The workers walked off the job on Sept. 5, the first day of classes, mainly over wages and benefits such as union leave. They have been without a contract since June. Ryan, who works for CUPE Local 4600 at Carleton, encouraged People's Voice readers to visit www.2424.cupe.ca to send a message to the Board of Governors in support of the strike.

     In an alarming development, the Board of Governors has told student representative Shelley Melanson that if she continues to speak in support of the striking workers, she would be in a "conflict of interest" and would have to quit the Board. Melanson, who is also the president of the Carleton University Students Association, was elected representative for the undergraduate students on the Board until June 2008.

     Condemning this move by the University as a "new low" and an attack on freedom of speech, Ryan told People's Voice that this was another way that University funding cuts are negatively impacting students: "People are also coming out of school with debts that are unbelievable," he said on a recent You Tube clip, noting that only the Communist Party is calling for the roll-back and elimination of tuition fees.

       Stuart Ryan's comments about post secondary education funding can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/CPCupdates.