Talks break down; teachers to vote on final offer
College faculty are being asked to vote on their employer’s latest offer after negotiations between their union and employer fell flat, again.
The College Employer Council, which represents Ontario’s 24 community colleges, announced Monday that they’ve asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to schedule a vote on the colleges’ final offer.
Negotiators for the colleges and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union – the union representing 12,000 college faculty members – returned to the bargaining table Thursday.
But after five straight days of talk, a contract agreement still couldn’t be met. Negotiations initially started in July.
College faculty have been on strike since Oct. 16. That’s left the schools’ roughly 500,000 students in limbo while classes are suspended.
As faculty enter their fourth week on the picket line, ECE reached out to the labour board.
They want to hear from faculty members directly, seeking individual votes from all OPSEU members.
ECE also wants the strike to be suspended until voting gets underway.
Tony Tilly, Fleming College president, said that it could take five to 10 days for the labour board to organize a vote, which is too long.
There are about 250 full-time and partial load faculty on strike at Fleming represented by OPSEU Local 352.
Tilly said he was disappointed with the outcome that’s arisen and thinks a negotiated settlement is the best way to end the strike.
“I did feel that the college put forth workable ways to address the issues that OSPEU had raised but we don’t have a deal,” he said.
Liz Mathewson, president of Local 352, said the union has three issues. It wants greater academic control over courses, more stability for partial load faculty and an even ratio of full-time to contract faculty.
She said moral on the picket lines is strong and members aren’t prepared to give up.
With that in mind, Mathewson said she doesn’t think faculty will vote for the current contract the union refused.
“I think that the membership is going to reject it because it’s absolutely not acceptable,” Mathewson said.
In the meantime, students continue to lose days in the classroom.
Tilly said there’s a contingency plan in place for students as the strike continues.
Currently, the plan is to extend the semester. Instead of ending on Dec. 15, students will have classes until Dec. 22.
That could pose a problem for students who’ve already planned trips back home for the holidays though, especially international students who’ve booked plane tickets.
Fleming recognizes that, Tilly said, and will accommodate accordingly.
“We will find ways to accommodate those students who already have bookings,” Tilly said.
Students’ housing could also be an issue. Those who have a monthly lease won’t be affected, Tilly said, but that’s not the case for all students. That means each case will have to be looked at individually.
With the future of the semester still unclear, Tilly is asking to students to hang in there.
“We ask our students to continue to be patient and understand that ultimately they’ll get every support that we can provide,” he said.