Conciliator sets Oct. 15 strike-lockout date set for Ontario colleges

TORONTO — A conciliator has set 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 15 as the time a legal strike or lockout involving unionized faculty at all 24 public colleges in the province can begin.

The conciliator issued the date after faculty represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union requested a “no-board” report last week.

Under the rules set out in the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act, the union is required to give five days’ notice prior to going on strike, and the College Employer Council must give five days’ notice of a lockout. This means an actual strike or lockout deadline could come after Oct. 15.

Key issues in this round of bargaining relate to education quality and the ongoing exploitation of contract faculty.

OPSEU represents more than 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors and librarians in the province’s college system. That includes 782 faculty members at Conestoga College.

“The reason for requesting the no-board 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 J.P. Hornick, chair of the union’s college faculty bargaining team.