Sault College one of 24 public colleges across province that could face faculty strike

Sault College and other public colleges across the province could be facing a second faculty strike in five years if the union and management can’t come to an agreement on a new contract.

Negotiations between Ontario Public Service Employees Union CAAT-A team (OPSEU) and the College Employer Council (CEC) reached an impasse last Thursday after more than five months of meeting without success. The current contract expired on Sept. 30.

Roughly 4,500 Sault College students would be affected if a strike is called.

CEC represents the 24 public colleges in Ontario at the negotiating table, while OPSEU is representing full-time and partial-load faculty, librarians, and counsellors at those colleges.

Last week, OPSEU presented its final offer and CEC ended bargaining and requested a no board report. In a news release, OPSEU said the bargaining team has been compelled to call for a strike vote.

“The faculty team proposed that both teams engage in voluntary binding arbitration to resolve outstanding issues, rather than escalate toward labour disruption – but the CEC has refused this offer,” said OPSEU in a recent news release.

“As a direct result of the CEC’s refusal to compromise on outstanding faculty demands related to improvements to workload for full-time and contract faculty, online learning, and protecting the use of faculty course materials, or to agree to refer outstanding issues to an independent arbitrator, faculty have no choice but to file a request for a strike vote with the Ministry of Labour,” said faculty bargaining team chair JP Hornick in the release.

“As a direct result of the CEC’s refusal to compromise on outstanding faculty demands related to improvements to workload for full-time and contract faculty, online learning, and protecting the use of faculty course materials, or to agree to refer outstanding issues to an independent arbitrator, faculty have no choice but to file a request for a strike vote with the Ministry of Labour,” said Hornick.

In its own release, CEC says it tabled four separate offers since February, but discussions have stalled and I the OPSEU team has maintained demands that CEC says are unreasonable.

“We have, therefore, asked the Conciliator to issue a No Board Report. The CAAT-A team is clearly no longer interested in bargaining. We believe that we have no choice but to move the process forward.”, said Dr. Laurie Rancourt, chair of the CEC Management Bargaining team. “The Colleges do not want students and employees to be negatively impacted because of the unwillingness of the CAAT-A team to bargain in good faith and work towards concluding a collective agreement.”

 In a statement, OPSEU president Warren Thomas says he’s disappointed with Thursday's turn of events, especially after both parties had signalled a deal was close, following a recent media blackout.

“After many years, and many rounds of negotiating, we’ve developed a mature bargaining relationship by now,” said Thomas. “That’s why it’s so disheartening that this is where the parties have landed. But I remain confident that reaching an agreement is still possible.”

If a strike does occur, it would be the second strike to impact Ontario’s college students within the last five years.

In 2017 the Ontario College Strike, which affected upwards of 500,000 students, lasted five weeks before the provincial government passed back-to-work legislation.

— with files from Daniel Caudle.