NSCC teachers protest at Province House

Nova Scotia Community College instructors and support staff gathered outside Province House in Halifax on Thursday to pressure the NDP government to agree to binding arbitration.

The workers intend to walk off the job on Tuesday if the impasse at the bargaining table continues.

More than 200 teachers and support staff chanted and carried signs that read, "It's hard not to feel like a target" and "Treat your faculty and professional support fairly."

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union is demanding the same 2.9 per cent raise that public school teachers got in April. The province is offering one per cent.

Louis Robitaille, an instructor at the NSCC Lunenburg campus, said the workers are not trying to be greedy.

"The amount of money that it would take to solve this problem is about the same amount of money that it would take to pave about a kilometre of highway," he said. "So it's not a lot of money that we're asking for."

Speaking through a bullhorn from the steps of the legislature, union president Alexis Allen told the crowd the ongoing stall in contract talks is a sign the government has an agenda at play.

"You're being used as pawns," said Allen. "You're being used for future negotiations."

Earlier Thursday, deputy premier Frank Corbett said arbitration is possible — on one condition.

"In order for us to agree with binding arbitration, the parties have to agree that paramount to all this is our ability to pay and the condition of the province's finances," he said.

"Until that can be agreed to, we're taking a roll of the dice and we're just not, at this point, willing to do that."

He said he is urging the union and the college to return to the bargaining table.

A strike by NSCC teachers and support staff could affect the education of 25,000 students at 13 campuses across the province.