Striking faculty ask province to pressure administrators to return to table

Striking faculty are calling on the Ontario government to pressure college administrators to return to the bargaining table in a labour dispute that’s caused headaches for half a million students.

At a rally outside the Min- istry of Advanced Education’s offices on Wednesday, the president of the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union — which represents the striking workers — said the province needs to urge the College Employer Council to restart talks. As the funder of Ontario’s 24 colleges the government has the ability to get colleges to return to negotiations, Warren “Smokey” Thomas said.

“The premier can say to the employer side ... get back to that table, open your mind up a little bit and do some of the things that the workforce is saying would make education better,” he said. “A lot of these things cost no money.”

The strike involving more than 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians began on Oct. 15.

The union wants an even split between full- time and contract faculty positions, but the colleges have said that would add more than $ 250 million in costs each year.

Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews said Wednesday that the province needs to let the collective bargaining system work.

“This is really unfortunate that this is dragging ... without them actually talking to each other,” she said. “If they were at the table, if they were hammering out the issues, I’d have a differ- ent opinion, but the fact that they’re not even finding a way to get to the table is very troubling.”

Don Sinclair, CEO of the College Employer Council, said the colleges are ready to return to the table. “OPSEU are the ones who created the strike and they walked away from the table,” he said. “They know where the settlement zone is, they’ve just elected not to seek it.”