Striking Ontario community college workers voted 86 percent against accepting the employer’s offer in a forced vote instigated by the colleges after the strike had stretched on for a month. Today, both sides were back at the bargaining table at the request of the Premier. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) declared the vote a bully move. It appears the colleges were counting on enough teachers being fed up with the strike and a month without pay to win acceptance of the offer. The issue or issues are not always easy for onlookers to grasp. It appears the principal complaint is that the union has been asked to make “concessions” around the number of contract employees. There is also discussion of teacher input into the content of the curriculum. Foreign students from places like China are learning a hard lesson about first-world work stoppages. Many of them will not have seen a strike before, particularly a public service workers strike. Canadians on the other hand are well blistered by such hurtful stoppages. They have been called an exercise in the people going on strike against themselves.
