24 Ontario Colleges Could Go On Strike Soon & Over 200K Students Might Be Affected

Another year, another post-secondary strike in Ontario.

On March 15, college faculty members represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union announced that 16,000 of their staff could be going on strike as soon as Friday if the College Employer Council doesn't agree to "binding interest arbitration."

The CEC is the government-mandated bargaining group that's in charge of negotiating agreements with union staff for the 24 publicly-funded colleges in Ontario.

Here's what's been happening

In January, college faculty said that the CEC's offer for a collective agreement should be rejected because it did not address the faculty's workload issues and offered no job protection for part-time counsellors, librarians and coordinators.

OPSEU's college faculty previously shared that 62% of members who voted in contract negotiations rejected the CEC's offer.

“Our members are fighting for the best education for students,” said JP Hornick, chair of the bargaining team for college faculty.

“We haven’t made any unreasonable demands, and everything we have asked for is easily achievable,” Hornick said in their latest announcement.

On Monday, March 14, the CEC said that an independent mediator said many of the union's demands were "completely unrealistic."

"This is because they are demanding changes that they know colleges cannot make," the CEC said.

"For instance, they have made demands about their workload that violate the law governing compensation. The government has confirmed the Union demands violate the law, yet the Union refuses to moderate it choosing to strike."

In the press release posted by the OPSEU on March 14, the union stated that binding interest arbitration "involves both parties’ asking a neutral arbitrator to resolve a bargaining dispute as an alternative to a strike or lockout."

Both sides would give proposals to the arbitrator, who will create a compromise between both parties.

College faculty wrote a letter to the various college presidents that said if they don't agree to this by March 18 at 12:01 a.m, they'll "withdraw [their] services and escalate to a full strike."

What this means for students

On March 4, 15 presidents from Ontario Student Associations penned a letter to the CEC, OPSEU and Ministry of College and Universities expressing concerns for over 240,000 students across the 24 colleges.

Among the concerns is a fear that students will see a repeat of the 2017 strike, the "disappointment" that students are caught in the middle of these negotiations, and that the quality of their education and college experience will suffer.

"The impact that further job action could have on students is immeasurable," they wrote.

"We insist that these negotiations not further disrupt students' lives and for assurances that they can enjoy a return to normal college routine as soon as possible."

On March 16, college faculty tweeted that the CEC has agreed to meet with them on Thursday to try to reach a negotiated settlement between the two parties.

"If real progress is being made, we are willing to extend the strike deadline," they said.