Students’ union hosts open forum on strike possibility
February 18, 2010 5:19 PM
The StFX Students’ Union hosted a public forum on Monday, February 15 to discuss the impact a strike would have on students at StFX.
Approximately twenty-five StFX students attended the event at the Keating Millennium Centre.
President Sandy MacIntosh and Vice President Sheryl MacAulay began the forum by listing a chronology of events that have occurred since December in regards to the negotiations between StFXAUT and the university administration.
After a brief question period, the students divided into three groups and began discussing their concerns about the possibility of a strike at StFX.
Specifically, the groups debated the most effective actions the students’ union could take to represent the views of students.
The groups emphasized the need for the students’ union to keep communicating to students on a routine basis, the need to exert pressure on both parties to resolve the dispute at the negotiating table, and the importance of providing resources to help students stay on top of class work if a strike should occur.
“Whenever the U comes up with a strike plan, it’s important to tell the students,” said Dan Hindmarsh, a StFX student. “Don’t make the same mistake the AUT and admin are making by keeping us in the dark.”
Importantly, some students point out that a strike scenario would affect different faculties in different ways.
“There’s a certain engineering course that all the frosh have to take and it’s so rushed as it is, even if they lose a week, at least a quarter or more of the class is going to fail it, which is so unfortunate and unnecessary,” commented Liara Wheeler, an engineering student.
MacIntosh told the crowd that he wasn’t sure how a strike would affect the practicum of education students or the clinical hours of nursing students; he said he was waiting on information about those issues from StFXAUT.
Concerns about the effectiveness of the students’ union’s involvement in the situation were brought up at one table.
“Communication has increased since January and I applaud the U for doing that,” says Matt Whalen. “But communication means nothing if there’s no action.”
At one table, students discussed the possibility of students hosting a rally to express their concerns.
“A rally is an option, but it has to be very strategic,” MacIntosh explained, noting the necessity of presenting a well-crafted message through a public demonstration.
At the end of the night, Whalen pressed for information about what the students’ union executive would be doing within the following 24 hours, as StFXAUT and the administration were set to meet on Wednesday, February 17.
MacIntosh said they’d be compiling the list of students concerns articulated at the forum and forwarding them to both parties in the negotiations.
Whalen pressed further, adamant that the students’ union should draft letters to national, provincial, and local media advocating a resolution to the dispute before the parties were set to meet.
MacIntosh and MacAulay said that they would try their best to get this accomplished. After the forum, student Carmen Cipolla said he was glad the forum occurred but thought it could have been hosted earlier.
“Overall, it was a positive experience but the timing was off,” he noted. “In my opinion, this conversation should have started weeks ago.”
