NSCC teachers vote to strike

Teachers and support workers at the Nova Scotia Community College voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday night in favour of strike action to back wage demands.

In electronic balloting held across the province, 91 per cent of faculty members voted 93 per cent in favour of a walkout. Approximately 96 per cent of support workers voted 90 per cent in favour of joining job action, according to a release.

As many as 26,000 students at 13 community college campuses around the province will be affected.

Alexis Allen, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers' Union, said discussions with the community college and the Department of Education have continued since official talks broke down in June.

"However, there is still no financial commitment from the Department of Education to support an economic increase in 2009 or to have Community College members realize the same benefits that the Department of Education has agreed to provide to public school teachers," Allen said.

She said the workers have been without a contract for more than a year.

"Our members have been 13 months without a contract. They just wanted what everybody else received in the public sector that signed a contract last year into this fiscal year. They were left out, and we have real concerns," she said.

Allen said employees at the community college are asking for a 2.9 per cent pay increase and some insurance benefits, the same deal the province struck with 10,000 public school teachers.

In February, the teachers endorsed the new contract, which called for a 2.9 per cent increase in each of the two years of the agreement, which will expire on July 31, 2010.

Allen said the province is refusing to sign a two-year deal with community college workers, saying it can only afford a one-year contract.

"I have to say it was a surprise to all of us. On April 2, we signed with the teachers, and we received that, as did most public sector groups. Then about two weeks later, when we had our final negotiations, we were told they wanted a one-year [contract], they didn't have the money for the second year," she said.

"We're hearing that the Department of Education didn't provide the funding to the community college."