Striking college teachers to vote next week on colleges’ final offer
The union representing striking Ontario college faculty called Tuesday for its members to reject their employers’ latest contract offer, while the colleges are asking the faculty to suspend their strike until the vote is taken.
Talks between the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents the striking workers, and the College Employer Council, which represents the province’s 24 colleges, including about 250 teachers at the Fleming College campuses in Peterborough, Lindsay, Haliburton and Cobourg, broke down Monday, with the council asking the Ontario Labour Relations Board to schedule a vote on their offer.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered the vote to be held between 9 a.m. Nov. 14 and 10 a.m. Nov. 16.
Negotiations are expected to resume, so it’s possible a deal could still be reached before the vote.
Liz Mathewson, president of OPSEU Local 352, which represents the Fleming College faculty, expressed disappointment Tuesday that talks have broken off and a vote is being held on an offer that wasn’t negotiated at the table.
“We’re very disappointed. We were on the understanding on Thursday that the employer was going back to the table, ready to negotiate, and we were very excited,” Mathewson told reporters.
“We thought that there was commitment there to end this strike and come up with an agreement on a contract that we could use to move forward to support students, support quality education and get up back in the classroom, which is where we’ve wanted to be for the last three weeks ....
“We felt that if they were still talking on Sunday that it would be good news and it was quite a blow to find out on Monday that the employer was using its right to bring a contract to us for a vote, called a forced vote, on a contract that our bargaining team does not support and has not brought forward.”
The vote will be conducted by electronic ballot and ensure that the maximum number of faculty can exercise their right to vote, according to a release from the College Employer Council.
“We are still over a week away from the vote results being known and we again request that the strike be suspended for the sake of 500,000 students. The suspension will allow faculty and students to return to class and not lose another week of classes,” statedSoniaDelMissier,chairwoman of the colleges’ bargaining team.
“The colleges remain at the table, but we can’t just rely on bargaining to resolve the strike – and our students can’t wait. The faculty vote is another path to end the strike if bargaining is not successful,” Del Missier stated.
Balloting information and instructions will be sent directly to faculty from the OLRB in the coming days, according to a release from the College Employer Council.
Fleming College advised students last week to be prepared to continue classes through the Dec. 18 to 22 week when they would normally be off if the strike is settled.
OPSEU’s president said the two sides had been “very, very close” to a deal before the council contacted the labour relations board.
“We’re at a bit of a loss as to understand why they have gone and taken really the extraordinary step of going to the ( board) and looking for a vote,” Warren “Smokey” Thomas said at a news conference. “It’s caught everybody off guard.”
Ontario’s 12,000 college teachers, instructors, counsellors and librarians have been on strike since Oct. 15, leaving 500,000 full-time and parttime students out of class.
The union’s main point of contention has been the level of input college instructors have into the way courses are taught and evaluated, said OPSEU bargaining team chairwoman J.P. Hornick.
“Who is better placed to make decisions for our classrooms? Is it the faculty that are working with our students or the administrators who may not have even taught before and don’t know the subject matter?” Hornick asked.
The council’s final offer is a step backward, Hornick said.
“(Their) offer contains concessions that undermined everything we had negotiated and agreed to,” Hornick said.