Ontario college faculty threaten provincewide strike Friday
CBC
The union representing more than 16,000 Ontario college faculty members is threatening to walk off the job at the end of this week if their demands are not met.
In an open letter to college presidents released Monday, the college faculty branch of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) says staff will go on strike at 12:01 a.m. on Friday if the College Employer Council (CEC) does not agree to head to "voluntary binding interest arbitration" to settle outstanding contract issues.
The CEC is the government-mandated bargaining unit that represents Ontario's 24 publicly-funded colleges.
"While we believe that the best deals are reached through continued negotiations, you have told us from the outset of bargaining that you are unwilling to negotiate unless we drop our proposals that you find unacceptable. That's your choice, and we take you at your word," the OPSEU letter said.
"We also know that it is time to find a solution that does not jeopardize the school year through lockout or strike."
The strike would include professors, counsellors, librarians and instructors employed by Ontario's public colleges and would would affect about a quarter of a million students.
Ontario colleges academic employees have been working without a collective agreement since Sept. 30. Negotiations between the two sides broke down in November, and last month staff voted to reject the latest offer from the CEC.
Binding arbitration is a common way for labour disputes in post-secondary to get resolved. It involves asking a neutral arbitrator to resolve a dispute by building a compromise from two competing proposals. OPSEU says pursuing this route will eliminate the disruption to students by avoiding a strike or a lockout.
"Binding interest arbitration is not a win for faculty. It's not a win for college presidents. It's a win for students," OPSEU's letter said.
The colleges' negotiating team said it would rather use "final offer selection arbitration," which asks an arbitrator to pick which offer is more reasonable. That would see the neutral third party pick one of the two contracts last offered in November, when negotiations first broke down.
Nearly a month ago, Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC said, "We are not prepared to have an arbitrator 'split the difference' on key issues that colleges have already stated are unacceptable to begin with ... in essence, there is nothing to split."
In an update from the CEC bargaining team posted to their website on Monday, after the strike date had been announced, the colleges held their line.
"These demands fall well outside any acceptable provision. We can never accept them," it reads. "The decision to strike is short-sighted and comes at the expense of students and the college system."
Student groups say they are the ones losing out. Fears of what a pending strike could mean for students caught in the middle of the dispute loom large.
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