N.S. community college strike averted

Students at Nova Scotia’s community colleges expressed relief Monday after last-ditch talks produced a tentative deal that averted a strike by 900 college workers.

Nova Scotia Teachers Union president Alexis Allen confirmed that an agreement was reached by the two sides late Sunday night, meaning her membership would not be setting up picket lines on Tuesday.

Allen said she couldn’t release details, but added that the union would now go to its membership with a proposal that it recommends they accept.

“It’s not a total surprise in the sense that we’ve always been trying to see what we could do, and I think we just came to an agreement that hopefully the members will accept,” Allen said in an interview Monday.

No date has been set for a ratification vote but Allen said that would likely be done soon.

She said over the next couple of days union staff will go to the province’s 13 college campuses to brief the union membership on the agreement’s details.

On campuses, students said they were pleased their education wouldn’t be interrupted.

A strike would have affected 25,000 students across the province, including Brynn Langille, 20, who is majoring in broadcast journalism at the community college in Dartmouth, N.S.

“A couple of us were looking forward to maybe a couple of days off, but it looks like it (a strike) would have stretched out longer had it happened,” she said. “So, we were getting kind of worried if we were to miss a month or two, definitely.”

She expressed hope the new deal would be acceptable to the union, given that students would end up losing valuable time and money if a strike is the end result.