Why the Ontario college faculty strike matters

Most of us have internalized the holy dogma of the free-market economy. The lovely euphemism for cost cutting is “finding efficiencies.” This means squeezing all possible costs out of any supply chain, whether these costs are related to materials, processes or people. The logic of the freemarket justifies this cost-cutting by asserting that the savings thereby generated will lower product prices, improve competitiveness, increase corporate profitability and drive up share prices.

All of this might make sense for the production of products like cars. What happens when this dogma is applied to the provision of a service like education? We are told to accept this dogma without question. But are these laws true? Does relentless cost cutting lower prices, improve profitability and increase competiveness for Ontario’s community colleges?

Between 1989 and 2004, the student population doubled. One would assume that the number of faculty would increase to meet this demand. Wrong. The number of full-time faculty fell by 22 per cent. Via what magic did the colleges achieve this remarkable outcome? By hiring legions of parttime faculty like me who earn less than $20,000 a year. Today, more than 80 of the faculty who teach in Ontario’s college system are part-time or session contractors.

But what happened to these savings that the colleges realized through their cost-cutting? Greater productivity? Improved competitiveness? Hiring more full-time faculty? Lower tuition fees? No, no, no and you’ve got to be kidding. Instead, the colleges hired more administrators. Between 2003 and 2016, administrative positions within Ontario colleges rose by 77 per cent, more than double the increase in student enrolment. Moreover, salaries of college presidents ballooned during this time period by over 12 per cent each year. In January of this year, the college presidents asked for a staggering 32 per cent increase. They were not successful.

The colleges ran a surplus last year of $188 million. But their negotiators still use austerity in their bargaining with the union.

What about improved competitiveness? Competitiveness has certainly increased but not in a way that the colleges intended. The fact that too few want to talk about in or outside of Ontario’s colleges is that we have too many seats in college classrooms and not enough students to fill them. The declining birthrate that has driven public school closures across the province has hit the colleges. So to stay afloat the colleges have been competing with each other to recruit domestic and international students to boost enrollment. We need smaller colleges and fewer spaces for these students; this means fewer jobs for managers as well as faculty.

Most of the students I teach know all about precarious employment. Many have worked in the fast food industry and in call centres. They come to college to avoid having to subsist on precarious jobs for the rest of their careers. This strike is cutting into their semester and jeopardizing their chances of finishing their courses on time. But many students understand what is at stake here. They know that the neo-liberal economic dogma that places profit above people is bankrupt. Many get that we are all in this struggle together.

The colleges, unlike the universities, are not open to criticism of their plans for teaching and learning. Their managers insist upon absolute control. Dissent is not welcome. Toe the line, or else. Meanwhile, students are losing their semester and all their associated living expenses.

By the end of this week we will know the results of a union vote on the college management’s latest offer. There are only three possible outcomes. The union will vote “Yes” to accept the colleges’ offer and the strike will end. Or they will vote “No” and the strike will move on to either a negotiated settlement or a legislated end to the strike, followed by arbitration.

The best outcome for students and faculty would be a negotiated settlement, elusive as this seems right now. It is time to manage Ontario’s college system in a way that more fairly serves students, their families, faculty and society. Ontario’s colleges are too important to all of us to be run like businesses. College education needs more than management. It needs leadership.

Bill Templeman is a Peterborough writer and consultant.