Heather Wright/The Independent

There is frustration on the picket line at Lambton College after the most recent talks broke off without a deal.

College support staff, represented by the Ontario Public Service Employee Union, have been on strike across the province for three weeks. Sept. 26, under a media blackout, the union and the colleges’ bargaining unit began talks which extended to the weekend.

The College Employers Council said the union had taken two “poison pill demands” off the table, no layoffs and no closures or mergers of colleges. But, according to the employers’ council, the union “derailed” talks looking for a ban on contracting out services without the union’s support.

Jonathan Lawrence, vice president of Local 124 at Lambton, says the staff was optimistic. “It’s frustrating to hear that despite spending the weekend bargaining, the other side doesn’t want to even entertain discussions about any job security.

“What’s being said right now is that there is job security at the table,” Lawrence said, “but what that actually looks like is you have extended period of time for notice when you’re going to be laid off. So that’s not job security…If you need to lose your job in order to gain access to those benefits, then it’s not job security.”

Lawrence adds the union’s demand to have a say on contracting out is not unreasonable in the fight to keep community college jobs in their communities.

“I don’t want our students to have to call a random hotline in order to get technical assistance from someone who isn’t even that familiar with life in college, and it’s just being contracted out –  that’s not a world that I want to live in. I like being able to be there, to be that friendly face helping people and I know that a lot of my colleagues feel similarly.”

Lawrence says services are suffering at the college and students with co-op placements are particularly vulnerable in the strike.