Colleges, faculty take break from negotiations

No progress made in talks as union sets Oct. 15 as possible strike date

Talks between Ontario’s colleges and the union representing 12,000 faculty members are now on hiatus, after a full week of negotiations led nowhere.

At the urging of a mediator, the two sides “will stand down,” said Sonia Del Missier, head of the bargaining team for the College Employer Council, which leads the talks for the provinces 24 public colleges.

“From our end, we need to think about what we do next,” she said. “At this point, the parties remain far apart.”

No date has been set for talks to resume.

Meanwhile, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) announced Oct. 15 is the first day a legal strike, or lockout, could begin, though any such job action requires the union to provide five days’ advance notice.

“The reason for requesting the noboard report, and thus a legal strike or lockout date, was to encourage our employer to get down to business and work with us at the bargaining table to reach a fair settlement,” said JP Hornick, who heads OPSEU’s college bargaining team, in an earlier written statement.

“That remains our goal. Our team will do everything in its power to achieve that settlement.”

The colleges had an offer on the table, which expired at midnight Friday, that gave faculty a 7.5-per-cent raise over four years, a lump-sum payment, as well as improvements to benefits coverage.

“We hoped the offer would have been accepted and, unfortunately, the union rejected that offer and we’re still in that situation where we have proposals (from the union) that really can’t form the basis for settlement,” Del Missier said.

“From our perspective, we still remain committed to finding a path to a settlement that’s fair to faculty while being affordable and responsible to the colleges.”

The12,000 union members include full-time professors, those who teach a “partial load” — anywhere from seven to 12 hours a week — as well as college counsellors and librarians.

The colleges have said the union’s demands would cost $400 million a year, and lead to the loss of thousands of contract jobs.

The union wants to increase the number of full-time teaching positions, saying the growth of precarious teaching work is a huge concern.

It also wants university-like “senates” at all colleges, giving faculty a say in how the institutions are run. The colleges have said governance issues are outside of the parameters of bargaining.