Hello internet,
Last week I filled you in on what I do at school and what it’s like. Well bad news is surrounding school now. The whispers say strike. Yes sadly our faculty feel they are underpaid and government is not willing to give them the raise they want. Of course this is happening a month into school and the only ones who will suffer the most, students. So let’s get into some details.
The NSCC faculty have been negotiating their contract for over a year now with no results. They want the same contract that public school teachers received a 2.9 % in each year of a two year contract. Teachers voted on September 22nd and over 90 percent of teachers voted in favour of the strike. Uh Oh. So off go the emails to student assuring that this does not mean there will be a strike. Classes resume as usual, and students don’t seem to be worried. Hello? Do we not realize that this is going to affect us? This means that our teachers may be walking out on the job, and we will be left paying for schooling that we will not receive.
Now getting back on track. On Friday October 2nd the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and NSCC faculty and support staff negotiators went back to the table. They left at the end of the day with no progress..Great. This is very bad news. Yet just like before out go the emails saying not to worry, that everything possible is being done to avoid a strike. That may be true, but things are not looking good at this point.
This Thursday, October 8th NSCC executives will gather to set a strike date. They will be giving 48 hours notice. This weekend is thanksgiving weekend, meaning we have a long weekend. So everyone seems to be preparing for a strike on Tuesday. And yet, the students still seem to be honky dory.
Common people! Let’s let them know what we think. I say we get together, march on down to the Nova Scotia Province house and strike this strike! Let’s stop just sitting around and waiting, how about we do something. So what happens now, we go eat some turkey and then come back to school and cross a picket line? How about they let us know what’s going on, after all this is affecting us. I am just so mind boggled that we have no information about this. Will classes be pushed back? Will we get money back in the case it goes for a long time?
There are so many questions and I feel someone really has to step up and think about the students. Also, students get it together! Let’s start to ask questions, let’s start to care!
I guess this story is on going and I will keep you posted!
Until next time,
KP
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To bad its so hard to do anyhing. My teachers refuse to talk about it or answer any questions. I am totally on the line. As a student I do not believe that they deserve a raise what so ever. I aslo don't want to see my year get ruined. I feel as though I'm stuck.
ReplyDeleteHey there,
ReplyDeleteI'm a fellow NSCC student who also blogs. There's only a few of us, but I'm probably going to be posting again soon about the media coverage the strike issue has been receiving and how unhappy I am with it all.
If it's ok with you, may I link to this post?
Anyway, back to the original topic: I completely agree with you about students needing to get together. I was hoping someone would organize an NSCC wide protest rally for every campus on the same day and at the same time... but this didn't even come close to happening.
I know my school (Marconi) held a rally at the same time as Akerley, although the turnout at Akerly was only like 100 people and none of the footage from the Marconi rally was used on the news.
We may organize another rally in Sydney around the government house, once the strike starts. This would be more effective if it was simultaneous with the other NSCC campuses.
If you'd like to see my blog, it's located at http://webstravaganza.com