The body that represents Ontario’s 24 public colleges in contract talks insists it is not the one being unreasonable.
The College Employer Council has responded after faculty members threatened to walk off the job this Friday unless the two sides can reach a tentative deal.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents 16,000 faculty members, said everything it has asked for in negotiations is achievable. However, it accuses the council of being hell-bent on provoking a work stoppage.
The council said that is not true.
“Please know that management has made numerous attempts to reach an agreement with the union,” said the Chair of the CEC Management Bargaining Team, Doctor Laurie Rancourt. “As far back as a year ago, in March 2021, management asked the union to extend the current agreement without changes so that we could complete the school year without interruption and recognize the uncertain times in which we are living.”
She said the union flat-out refused.
“The past two years have been really hard for everyone,” read a statement from the council. “Every time it appeared that college life might be returning to normal, the pandemic would worsen.”
It said the union, not the council, has refused to bargain and refused arbitration.
“CEC has repeatedly offered final offer selection arbitration. If the union is satisfied that its offer is reasonable, then it should allow an arbitrator to choose between it and the CEC offer,” added CEO of CEC Graham Lloyd. “We have put aside all of our demands on a without prejudice basis and have advised we cannot give any more.”
The union wants the matter to go to interest arbitration.
On Monday, the chair of OPSEU’s bargaining committee, JP Hornick, accused the council of moving toward a lockout.
“The colleges have stated on numerous occasions since November that they will never lockout faculty,” said Rancourt. “Our promise to students is to continue to make every effort to reach a fair agreement. We want to achieve this with as little disruption as possible.”
College faculty are ready to walk off the job as of 12:01 a.m. on Friday.
The last strike in 2017 lasted five weeks and impacted over 500,000 students.
