Dozens of students streamed out the doorways of the St. Lawrence College (SLC) buildings today at 1 p.m., headed for the picket lines where the college’s full-time support staff have stood daily since Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025.
The walkout marks precisely one week since the full-time college support workers took labour action over failed negotiations between their union, the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU), and the College Employer Council (CEC).
The sticking points for the college support staffers: job security, protecting support staff work, improved working conditions, and the necessary benefits and time off “to allow support staff to take care of themselves and their families,” according to OPSEU. They point to about 10,000 jobs lost at colleges in Ontario, and the loss of around 650 programs. Continued cuts of employees and programs has remained a point of contention for many college workers – not just full-time support staff – over the past few years; these issues have been exemplified locally in the program cuts, job losses/layoffs, and restructuring at SLC.
Having informed herself about the issues, second-year Social Service Worker (SSW) program student Maddy Wright felt something had to be done on that part of those issues, besides the support workers currently on strike.
“As someone in the SSW program, our professors teach us how important it is to advocate for change, not only for our clients but for the systems that serve them as well. As a student here who has relied on many of the support staff over my three semesters, I want to advocate for the changes they need to better support us, as well as the programs and tools that the college is cutting that so many students rely on,” Wright told Kingstonist ahead of the student walkout she organized for Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025.
The Saugeen Shores native, who’s lived in Kingston now for five years, is planning on taking a two-year paramedic course after she completes the SSW program this school year (2025-2026).
But what holds her back from taking that plunge speaks to the very issues college support workers are flagging to the government.
“I was hoping to take [the two-year paramedic course] at the Cornwall St. Lawrence campus, but with their library turning into an empty book vending machine, now I’m not so sure,” Wright shared.
The second-year SLC student said she’s been on the picket lines with the striking support staff daily, and that she’s “learned so much about how much our college system is failing.” She, too, emphasized the job and program cuts and their impacts on Ontario colleges, also noting the “over $350 million in funding” colleges have lost since the beginning of the Ford government.
Wright said that “some bursary students have been threatened with job loss if they support the strike,” though Kingstonist has not been able to independently verify that claim.
As the organizer of the student walkout, Wright said she wanted to bring her college colleagues out to the picket lines because “our support staff support us in almost every aspect of our education, from admissions, to scheduling, to study help, to keeping the lights on, and I feel as though students should have the opportunity to support those who support us through our educational careers.”
Though Wright said she hoped the student presence added to the picket line might put a bit more pressure on those who can address the issues the full-time support staff are raising, she was not alone in voicing her contempt for the effects Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government have had on the province’s colleges.
“So, in the end, I would say that… the revenue [for college] got cut because the… number of international student visas got cut. But the province was always underfunding colleges because they could rely on that international student revenue. And so now, they have to step in and make sure that domestic students are not harmed by the cut in revenue, because we don’t have the international students paying up and supporting the colleges,” said Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Ted Hsu, who stopped by the student walkout and spoke to Kingstonist.
“So really, I think, from my point of view as a provincial legislator, it’s that the province has to step up and make up the difference.”
Hsu said he thinks the students getting out on the picket lines with the support staff today is an “important” part of creating a path forward.
“I’m guessing that the provincial government is hoping that pressure from the students and their families will result in a settlement sooner rather than later, and having the students come out to show their support means, ‘Wait a minute! You can’t count us on your side against the staff, and we do want our staff to be treated fairly,” he said.
The MPP pointed to another place where student – and public – support might help in bringing about change or moving things forward.
“My job as a provincial legislator is to put pressure on the provincial government. And I think one thing that people need to know is, the provincial legislature, Doug Ford is keeping us away until October the 20th. He can do that because that’s the way our system works… I want people to know that I do not have question period, I do not have committee meetings. I can’t debate legislation because Doug Ford is keeping us away until October the 20th, and unless people know that and complain… he’ll just keep us away and he can get away with it,” said Hsu.
“He is a majority government, and if people don’t complain about the Ontario legislature not sitting, then he can get away with it. I want to get back there, because that gives me tools that I can use to put pressure on the Ford government, for Kingston and for the workers and students here at St. Lawrence.”
And the student organizer of the walkout had a message on who hurts when there is no action to address the ongoing issues plaguing Ontario’s colleges.
“My message would be that it isn’t the college that’s suffering, it’s the students. I’ve talked to so many friends and family members who were excited to apply for college after high school, and later in life, who are now deterred and will not be applying in Ontario,” said Wright.
“If our college system fails the students, who will fill the employment gaps for services such as paramedics and child-care workers?”
With files from Cris Vilela.