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London’s Fanshawe College and its peers across Southwestern Ontario and provincewide are bracing for a strike that could mark the start of 2025 amid a breakdown in labour talks with the union representing faculty and other staffers.
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The Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU) has requested a no-board report, which is a notice from the Ministry of Labour that a conciliation board will not be appointed when an agreement can’t be reached. It’s usually sought when talks have completely broken down, and once granted a 17-day clock starts ticking before a strike or lockout can begin.
The decision came after “no real progress towards a contract which improves the working lives of college faculty” was reached during talks, union officials said in a statement. Officials with the CEC said in a statement that talks took place from Dec. 6-8 to reach a deal before the holidays but were “unsuccessful.”
Both parties agreed to extend mediation and return to the bargaining table on Jan. 6 and 7.
Union officials have accused the colleges of “bargaining in bad faith,” noting in a statement that “despite repeated, unmet requests for appropriate disclosure in response to federal and provincial decisions” the colleges are “implementing imposed terms and conditions that will negatively impact students’ education.”
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The union demands include “no concessions, better wages, no more free labour and enhanced job security protections,” officials said in a statement.
The talks are playing out after the federal government moved to tempter the country’s housing crisis by imposing a 35 per cent reduction in new visas for international students. Visas were capped at 364,000 this fall, almost 200,000 fewer than the 560,000 issued in 2023.
International students pay far more in tuition that domestic students, a key source of revenue for many colleges.
Three of Ontario’s 24 community colleges are located in Southwestern Ontario – Fanshawe College, with campuses in London, Simcoe, St. Thomas and Woodstock; Lambton College in Sarnia; and St. Clair College in Windsor, with a campus in Chatham.
Fanshawe has about 43,000 students, 6,500 of whom are international, according to its website. President Peter Devlin, in an October email to staff obtained by The Free Press, warned the cut in international students will “significantly” affect the school’s budget and may limit course offerings.
The toll has already been felt elsewhere. In Hamilton, Mohawk College cut its administrative workforce by 65 positions and suspended more than a dozen programs as the college projected a $50-million deficit next year. Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto announced it was temporarily closing one campus.
With Files from Free Press reporter Heather Rivers and Ottawa Citizen reporter Joanna Lucius
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