Campusnews

Locked into ‘poverty deal

College cleaning staff seeks to switch to recognized union

= By CAMERON THOMSON

angaras cleaning staff
are fighting to switch
unions, saying they
were pushed into a 10-
year contract with an unrecognized
union that offers minimal wage in-
creases and only three sick days.

An international union defend-
ing the cleaning crew is coming to
their defense, saying the cleaning
staff were taken advantage of.

Christine Bro, the lead organizer
for Service Employees Internation-
al Union (SEIU) which is support-
ing the switch, said many of Lan-
gara’s cleaning staff are immigrants
and speak English as a second lan-
guage — making it difficult for them
to understand contract terms.

The cleaning staff’s employer,
BEST Service Pros, entered into
a tentative agreement with the
Christian Labour Association of
Canada (CLAC), an unrecog-
nized union in British Columbia.
On June 21, 2016, only three days
into being hired, cleaning staff
were then rushed into ratifying that
agreement, according to Bro.

“These contracts have very legal
lingo in them. Workers were also
not given copies of the agreement
before they were asked to vote on
it,” Bro said. “While CLAC says
they gave them a copy on the day
of the ratification, all the workers
we spoke to say they didn’t receive
acopy of the agreement and only saw
it months after in the breakroom.”

Langara night cleaner James
Gonzalo, from the Philippines, said
when he started to support a switch
in unions, his workload increased.

The SEIU is in front of the B.C.
Labour Relations Board in an effort
to attempt to take over from CLAC
as the cleaning staff’s union.

Public affairs manager Travis
Smith said Langara College does
not play a role in this dispute.

“We contract out janitorial ser-
vices, and as such their labour rep-
resentation choices do not directly
involve the college,” Smith said in
an email to The Voice.

But Bro said the college should

EDITORLINDSEY LLOYD |

James Gonzalo is a member of Langara's cleaning staff seeking for union change. cameRON THOMSON PHOTO

also be held responsible for the low
wages of cleaning staff.

She said in order to give the col-
lege the best deal, BEST Service
Pros entered into an agreement
with the unrecognized union "to

lock workers into a 10 year poverty
deal."

“The college is actually directly
implicated in this because at the
end of the day colleges are the

contracting authority that choose

which cleaning companies they
want to award the contract to,” Bro
said.

CLAC and BEST Service Pros
did not respond to The Voice for
comment.

Students
Short on
Study
space

Growing pains
as student
enrolment rises

= By WILLIAM CROSBY

lack of library space is a
growing issue on campus
and students have started

to feel the pinch.

With an influx of almost 40,000
more students visiting the library
during the summer and fall semes-
ters than the same period last year,
those who want to study are find-
ing themselves competing for desk

— | B

The Langara library's study space has shrunk as the student population has grown, with some students unable to find
space during the library's peak hours. DAN/CA WALKER PHOTO

space, seats, computer terminals
and other resources.

According to a new Lan-
gara College report, there were
470,831 visitors that used the li-
brary in the summer and fall se-
mesters compared to last year.

As a result, queries skyrocketed,
with staff answering a whopping
10,000 more questions than the
previous year.

Simran Bola, a computer science
student who frequents the library,
said this increase has made it very
difficult for her to find study space
during peak hours.

“Sometimes it’s too busy and you
cant find a place to sit,” Bola said.

Dwayne Doornbosch, the di-
rector of facilities at Langara, said
study space is in high demand on
campus, due to an increase in enrol-
ment and the opening of the new
Building T-

Ryan Vernon, the coordinator of
technical services at Langara’s li-
brary, said they were able to measure
the increase of students visiting the
library through the electronic gates
at the entrance. The library aver-
aged 2300 students a day last year.

In a joint effort between the li-
brary and campus, Vernon said the
library has already implemented a
plan to expand the amount of study
space.

“We're constantly thinking about
and taking steps to change the way
space is configured,” Veron said.

“The library has already increased
its overall capacity by creating
more silent study areas,” he said. “It
now has 899 total seats compared
to 784 seats which is what it used
to have.”

Doornbosch said there are also
plans to remove book stacks to cre-
ate more space.

“We are currently working on
a new campus master plan, which
will identify new buildings that will
include more space for collabora-
tion, social activities and study,”
Doornbosch said.

THURSDAY, FEB. 22, 2018 |

THE VOICE

3

Gerontology
program
launches to
fill need

Canada's aging
population will strain
social services

= By AMANDA POOLE

esponding to a demand in
social service work and the
rowth in the senior care

industry, Langara has created a new
diploma program in gerontology,
the study of older and aging adults.

‘The program will be the first di-
ploma program for gerontology in
Western Canada and will be fill-
ing a gap in the labour market for
skilled workers to care for older
people.

‘The program comes soon after
Statistics Canada reported that for
the first time in Canadian history,
older persons are out-numbering
children.

Gerontology instructor and pro-
gram creator, Frances Grunberg,
said the growing population of
older people will be putting a lot of
pressure on the current services.

Grunberg said that there is also a
current lack in services that aid an
older person’s emotional and social
well-being as majority of current
services are focused strictly on older
peoples physical health.

“(The program will] create advo-
cates who can speak and communi-
cate with older people,” Grunberg
said.

Grunberg said many older people
prefer to age at home and services
are needed to assist them to stay
within their
daily living and
social dynam-
ics within their
communities.

Isobel Mack-

enzie, from the

Office of the

Seniors Advo-

cate B.C. said Frances
older people jSrunberg
without —fam- ppoceau cREATOR
ily members AND INSTRUCTOR
are slippin

through the cracks” when they need
assistance with tasks such as gro-
cery shopping or banking.

“Nobody is connecting them to-
gether,” she said. “We need to do
a better job of connecting people
who need them with the services
[they require].”

An applicant of the program,
Rita Horta said she believes im-
provements can be made in services
for older people.

“We will all grow older and I
hope we can have better outcomes
for the younger generation,” Horta
said.

CANADA'S AGING
POPULATION

1. 2016 People over the age
of 65 outnumber children under
the age of 14 for the first time in
Canada.

2. 32% of people aged 85
and older currently live in care
homes or residences, the rest live
alone or with family.

3. 2031 The population of

older people will almost double
the number of children.

SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA