Ontario college faculty offered pay raise

Union calls for other issues to be addressed, proposes strike vote in September

Ontario colleges are offering faculty members a 7.5-per-cent pay raise over the next four years, but the union says other issues must be addressed and is calling for a strike vote in September.

The colleges’ offer includes the raise — boosting pay for full-time instructors to a maximum $115,094 by 2020 — as well as lump-sum payments and improvements to drug and benefits coverage. It matches deals reached with other college staff, said Sonia Del Missier, a vicepresident at Sudbury’s Cambrian College who is in charge of the pro- vincial bargaining team. The colleges want the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) to let academic staff vote on the offer.

“We want to ensure that faculty are aware that it is a good and fair deal, one that allows us to invest in our faculty,” Del Missier said. “It provides stability when there are so many things in the environment that are uncertain . . . the other key piece is that there are no concessions in this.”

The two sides have bargained for six days and resume talks Aug. 22. Del Missier said in the past, the colleges have released details of offers when negotiating with other public sector union employee groups.

Support staff negotiated a similar deal after two days of bargaining, and are holding a ratification vote at the end of August, said Don Sinclair, head of the College Employer Council. In a letter to members, OPSEU said the “offer is unacceptable as it stands.”

“The employer’s offer would only worsen this situation,” it says. “It would radically reduce the overall number of full-time faculty as retirement and other openings are not filled . . . and (lead to) a general weakening of our union as we continue to bleed full-time positions,” the letter said, adding that the salary increase does not keep up with inflation, and there are “no meaningful gains” for part-timers and “precarious work would continue to be as much of a problem over the next four years as it is today.”

The current contract for academic staff expires at the end of September. The colleges’ offer goes to September 2021.