Political Science Students Vote to Strike

NewsPierre Chauvin — Published March 14, 2012

A strike motion asking students not to go to class was passed during the PSSA General Assembly this afternoon. in protest of tuition hikes proposed by the Charest government.

The motion garnered 58 votes for, 21 against and four abstentions. The quorum, set at 2.5 per cent, was reached with 83 students officially registered.

The PSSA represents 1,600 students.

Their General Assembly comes at the heels of controversy surrounding PSSA President Pier-Luc Therrien Pelloquin’s decision to annul the results of a previous strike vote. Pelloquin later apologized and retracted the cancellation.

“This is in the past; now we’re working on the future,” said Pelloquin. “I think it was a success on every account: we are 20 [voters] more than last time, we got secret ballot, everything was legitimate.”

The GA started with Gene Morrow speaking in favour of a strike, and Alexandre Léger against. The floor was then opened to discussion.

“We’re probably going to start off with a soft picket,” said Morrow.

“Hopefully we will be able to cover the classes and have a few people at each door just talking with people, letting them know we’re on strike and trying to get people to boycott their classes.”

Morrow said his number-one concern is tension on the picket line.

“It has to be said that the majority of violent rhetoric and activity comes from people trying to break the picket line, rather than picketers themselves and I really hope that those people will be able to respect the decision that was made here,” he said.