Here’s what they had to say.
Since 11,848 members of the OPSEU/SEFPO College Faculty voted “yes” on Oct. 18 to authorize a strike mandate if an agreement is not reached, students have raised many questions about the potential strike.
There are two sides to this negotiation. The OPSEU/SEFPO, which represents over 15,000 Ontario College faculty members, highlights the necessity of modernizing contracts, fixing workload and job precarity. On the other hand, the College Employer Council (CEC) represents Colleges and their interests at the bargaining table, and says it has tried to find common ground between the union and CEC proposals.
In order to get more information for the students of Humber Polytechnic and the University of Guelph-Humber from the sources themselves, IGNITE has reached out to both parties for further clarification on the situation.
Here are our questions and their respective answers:
1. Please introduce yourself and let us know who you’re representing in this bargaining process.
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“Graham Lloyd, CEO of the College Employer Council. The CEC is the government mandated bargaining agent for the 24 Ontario publicly funded Colleges that negotiate collective agreements with unionized staff. Simply put, the CEC represents the Colleges and their interests at the bargaining table.”
Miloš Vasić, President of the Humber Faculty Union:
“My name is Miloš Vasić, Professor in Liberal Studies here at Humber and President of the Humber Faculty Union (OPSEU 562). I am not a member of the College Faculty bargaining team, meaning I have no direct knowledge of what is happening at the table. Nevertheless, I am knowledgeable about the issues at stake.”
2. Can you please explain the current state of the bargaining process, and what students can expect next?
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“The parties have been meeting since July 2024. Both parties have put proposals on the table. Last month, the parties reached an impasse, and the CAAT-A academic bargaining team called for conciliation. This is when the Ministry of Labour appoints a neutral third party, a conciliator, to act as a mediator for the parties. This is the first step before the Union can start any formal job action, like a strike.
Currently, the parties are still in conciliation and plan to meet again on October 28. The CEC has asked the CAAT-A bargaining team to mediation followed by interest arbitration as a next step. This would appoint a new neutral third party, an arbitrator, to mediate and have the parties come to a mutual agreement on outstanding proposals. If the parties are unable to reach a conclusion, the arbitrator would step in and issue a ruling that both parties must accept.
CEC proposal assures there will be no interruption in student learning. We all want what is best for students and no one wants students and employees to be negatively impacted through a strike or other type of job action. That is why, we have offered mediation/interest arbitration as a path forward.”
Miloš Vasić, president of the Humber Faculty Union:
“The CEC and College Faculty bargaining teams are currently in conciliation. This is when an agent appointed by the Ministry of Labour attempts to find common ground between the two sides.”
3. Can you please explain the current state of the bargaining process, and what students can expect next?
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“We all want what is best for students and no one wants students and employees to be negatively impacted through a strike or other type of job action. That is why, we have offered mediation/interest arbitration as a path forward.
Only the Union team can determine if faculty engages in job action and if so what type of strike it engages in.
The only way to avoid a strike is to come to an agreement at the bargaining table or enter mediation/ interest arbitration.
This is precisely why CEC requested interest arbitration. CEC does not comprehend why OPSEU has rejected this path. It is an OPSEU recognized path to avoid a strike and is what their president, JP Hornick, stated is the usual method to resolve impasses.”
Miloš Vasić, president of the Humber Faculty Union:
“Since the parties are still in conciliation, it would be both premature and irresponsible to speculate about work action. The College Faculty bargaining team is committed to achieving a negotiated settlement through conciliation.”
4. What is CEC/OPSEU doing to ensure a strike does not happen?
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“The CEC remains dedicated to negotiating with the CAAT-A bargaining team. CEC has proposed to enter into mediation-arbitration with the CAAT-A bargaining team. This mechanism would provide a path forward to settle differences without disrupting student learning. In the last bargaining round, the OPSEU CAAT-A bargaining team agreed that mediation-arbitration was the best way to negotiate a mutually beneficial deal without putting students in the middle.
“Binding interest arbitration has been the usual way for labour disruptions to be settled in the past when we have not been able to negotiate an agreement. It is the common way for labour disputes in the post-secondary sector to get resolved — common enough that it’s written into several collective agreements,” J.P Hornick, OPSEU President and former chair of the CAAT-A bargaining team, March 2022.
The Colleges do not want students and employees to be negatively impacted because of the unwillingness of the CAAT-A bargaining team to settle negotiations at the table. Mediation followed by interest arbitration provides a win-win solution for both parties and, most importantly, the students. Mediation and interest arbitration give us the ability to continue working through areas of common ground and for a neutral third party to step to assist. We fail to comprehend why the CAAT-A bargaining team would reject this offer. The students and college system do not need a strike to address the Faculty Bargaining Team’s demands. Students don’t deserve to have their semester interrupted for demands the Union bargaining team knows the CEC can never agree to.”
Miloš Vasić, president of the Humber Faculty Union:
“This is the wrong question. Let’s flip it instead: what is the CEC doing to ensure a fruitful conciliation? Immediately following last week’s strong strike mandate, the Mr Lloyd and the CEC began clamouring for binding interest arbitration. This raises questions about the CEC’s commitment to stay at the table and negotiate a settlement that’s fair for both students and professors. Indeed, Graham Lloyd’s very participation in this article could undermine conciliation through potentially escalatory remarks. At this highly delicate stage of the process, no one with intimate knowledge of what’s happening at the table should be swooping down to individual colleges to give public statements.”
5. What are the most immediate and long-term effects on students’ education if a strike were to take place?
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“The Colleges will do everything possible to minimize the effects of a strike on students’ education. Historically, students have always been able to complete their semester and or graduate.”
Miloš Vasić, president of the Humber Faculty Union:
“Again, flip the question: what are — and will be — the consequences of maintaining the status quo? Provincial governments of both stripes have been starving post-secondary education for years, and the CEC has acted as its conveyor belt by refusing — in the last two rounds of bargaining at least — to negotiate any improvement in faculty working conditions. The Humber Faculty Union will always call out the chronic underfunding which poses an existential threat to the quality of post-secondary in this province.”
6. Were there any considerations focused on minimizing disruption for students throughout the bargaining process?
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“Throughout the bargaining process, the CEC tried to engage in open and honest dialogue with the CAAT-A bargaining team to try and find co-created solutions to the demands on the table. Unfortunately, the parties have reached an impasse as the CAAT-A bargaining team still maintains more than 200 demands that would cost the College sector almost $1 billion annually representing a 55% increase in costs. These are demands by the Union that the Colleges can never agree to.
For this reason, the CEC is asked the CAAT-A bargaining team to join them in mediation/ interest arbitration to find a path forward that does not create disruption for students or employees.”
Miloš Vasić, president of the Humber Faculty Union:
“The bargaining process is still unfolding. Indeed, student learning has not been disrupted this semester because the College Faculty bargaining team wants to see conciliation succeed.”
7. How would student support services, like mental health, academic accommodations and sports, be impacted during a strike? Would they continue to operate?
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“Students can visit their College website to find out how to access campus and services in the event of a strike.”
Miloš Vasić, president of the Humber Faculty Union:
“Such operational considerations are beyond the authority of faculty.”
8. In the event of a strike, are there any plans in place to support students academically and emotionally through the disruption?
Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC:
“Students can visit their College website to find out how to access student supports and services in the event of a strike. Historically, students have always been able to complete their semester and or graduate.”
Miloš Vasić, president of the Humber Faculty Union:
“This is a loaded question. That said, no student in the history of Ontario colleges (going back to the late 1960s) has ever lost a semester due to work action.”
These are the answers provided by Lloyd and Vasić. IGNITE urges both parties to reach an agreement as soon as possible, so students are not affected by any means.
Make sure you bookmark our strike update piece, as we will include more information as it becomes available.
This is a developing story.
Feature image courtesy of Humber Polytechnic — Humber’s Digital Asset Management.
Check our first article on the potential Ontario College strike for more background information.
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