Strike Update

by Marie Fester
Assistant Editor-in-Chief

On October 9th the Common Front announced its rotating and national strike days. At John Abbott this means that there will potentially be no classes on October 29th, November 16th and 17th as well as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of December.

On the 29th, workers in Montreal, Laval and the “salariés de la Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse” will be striking. This will be after potential strikes from the 26th through the 28th of October elsewhere in Quebec. The same group of people may strike on the 16th and 17th of November. On the first three days of December, all the members of the Common Front will be striking, which represent over 400,000 public sector workers in healthcare, social services, teaching and public functions.

Any strike days will be made up and final exams will not be cancelled in the case of a strike. The latest exams could go is December 23rd, the day before the college closes and two days after exams were supposed to end in the original academic calendar. Thus, intersession will not be cancelled and students planning on attending any programs starting in January 2016 will be able to keep their plans.

College staff and teachers are working tirelessly to adjust the academic calendar for all possible scenarios and teachers are adjusting course material and test and presentation dates. All changes to the academic calendar will be made available on Omnivox and by SUJAC. If you have questions about how in-class examination dates will change, please address your teacher.

If you are making plans for winter break, in the case of six days of strike classes would go until December 17th and exams would go until December 23rd. Announcement of strike days may be last minute as negotiations occur 24/7, so we recommend that you do not plan activities for strike days because school may not be closed.