Reject college offer: Union
The College Employer Council’s final should be dismissed as it goes to a vote, says OPSEU.
Ontario Public Service Employee Union is asking faculty to reject the College Employer Council’s final offer as it goes to a vote.
In a media release issued by OPSEU at noon on Tuesday, it said the CEC has rejected a counter-offer made in response to the CEC’s Monday offer.
The release states after the CEC “pulled the plug on negotiations” and asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to step in a call a vote, the OPSEU bargaining team put a new proposal together.
“This morning, I am sorry to say, council rejected that proposal outright,” OPSEU bargaining chair JP Hornick said in the release.
The release doesn’t give any indication of what the offer looked like and attempts to reach Hornick and OPSEU Tuesday were unsuccessful.
In the release, Hornick called the vote a “terrible move” and noted the strike will continue and the students will lose more time in the classroom as OPSEU and the CEC wait for the vote to occur.
A release from the CEC Tuesday afternoon stated the vote is set to take place electronically between 9 a.m. Nov. 14 and 10 a.m. Nov. 16. It is being done electronically to ensure the maximum number of faculty have the opportunity to vote.
Although the CEC continues to ask for the strike to be suspended during the voting process, that won’t be happening.
Shannon MacRae, head of the communications for OPSEU Local 242, said faculty can’t suspend the strike because there are no contracts for instructors to work under.
“What we would like to do is reach a negotiated settlement and then instead of having the final-offer vote, we could have a ratification vote on a proposed contract,” she said.
MacRae said up until Monday the talks were continuing and both sides were “very close” to a deal. The final point they were working on was in regards to the academic freedom portion of the contract as instructors would like to have more say in how courses are delivered and evaluated.
When word of the final-offer vote broke, MacRae said OPSEU and its members were blindsided.
The final-offer vote, administered and supervised by the labour board, will give faculty the opportunity to vote directly on the final offer.
The CEC’s request for a suspension was an effort to get students back into the classroom in the meantime, as stated in a release Monday from the organization.
This refusal means students and faculty will continue to be out of class.
“Students can thank their college presidents for putting them in this position,” OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas said in Tuesday’s union release.
He said the bargaining team has been willing compromise to move things forward and “it’s a shame” the colleges don’t want to do the same. He insinuated college administrators are only interested in cutting money from the classroom to pay their salaries.
“I think it’s something that all of us have to reflect on whether that’s the kind of language that ought to be used now when we’re trying to figure out the next step,” Niagara College president Dan Patterson said in response to Warren’s statement.
Patterson said the one thing that unites both sides is getting students back in the classroom. He feels the colleges have gone as far as they can with bargaining.
Patterson encouraged all Niagara College faculty to carefully read the last offer from the CEC, which he sees as addressing all concerns brought forward.
In response to this release from OPSEU, the CEC said in a statement it will not be “negotiating in the press.”
“If OPSEU is sincere about getting 500,000 students back in the classroom, then OPSEU should be at the bargaining table rather than making press announcements,” the statement said.
In the meantime, MacRae said morale is “pretty high” on the picket lines. Support from Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake students and communities has helped keep things positive.
“We’re doing everything we can to keep up spirits,” she said.