Ontario college faculty set to hold strike mandate vote

Here’s what you need to know.

Over 15,000 Ontario college faculty will participate in a strike mandate vote between Oct. 15 and 17, looking to demonstrate a willingness to go on strike over the union’s demands.

The OPSEU College Faculty Bargaining Team and the College Employer Council (CEC) started contract negotiations on July 15. All faculty proposals were tabled as of Sept. 10, but an agreement still must be reached.

Here’s a breakdown of the potential strike, what both sides are asking for and how it can impact students:

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU)

The Ontario College Faculty (CAAT-A) represent approximately 15,000 full-time and partial load professors and instructors, counsellors and librarians employed by public colleges in Ontario. They joined the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) in 1971, the union that represents public sector workers in Ontario.

In a press release published on Oct. 1, the OPSEU announced that over 15,000 Ontario College faculty will take part in a strike mandate vote from Oct. 15 at noon to Oct. 17 at 3 p.m. Faculty will have the chance to vote “yes” or “no” for a strike to take place.

The union says that reaching an on-time agreement has been undercut by numerous concessions proposed by the employer.

Michelle Arbour, the Acting Chair of the College Faculty Bargaining Team and faculty at Lambton College, says for months the bargaining team have highlighted the necessity to modernize contracts to meet today’s student and faculty needs.

“Quality education isn’t supported by reducing student evaluation time or advancing narrow conceptions of ‘teaching’ which exclude supporting students outside the classroom,” Arbour said.

A workload task force was jointly created to review the current workload formula. It released a report on Sept. 3 concluding that all modes of instruction delivery have increased workload and the time needed to support students. Additionally, partial-load members are performing duties outside of their contracts and librarians report unpaid overtime.

The union says faculty only have five minutes and 24 seconds per week to evaluate each student. The study also reports that most faculty have even less time, as only a quarter of them are allotted that amount of time.

“Our proposals invest in hands-on, job-ready education that trains Ontario’s future. The reality is that the Colleges are rapidly expanding a corporate, for-profit model of education on the backs of the most precarious workers and students,” Arbour said.

Arbour says colleges are experiencing a time of “historic profits.” The system-wide surplus accounts for $1 billion this year alone on top of the $1.3 billion provincial investment.

“Those funds should be readily invested in quality education,” Arbour added. “Instead, we’re seeing precarity on the rise as partial-load faculty hiring outpaces full-time faculty hiring. Three-quarters of teachers, counsellors, and librarians working in Ontario colleges are on short-term contracts with little to no benefits or job security and no redress for workload concerns.”

College Employer Council (CEC)

The College Employer Council (CEC) is the bargaining agent responsible for the 24 publicly funded colleges in Ontario, actively negotiating collective agreements with unionized staff. The CEC is also the policyholder for group benefits in the sector, which means they oversee and manage group insurance plans provided to the employees of the publicly funded colleges in the province.

The CEC says it has tried to find common ground and ensure stability for students and the system by engaging in open discussions throughout the bargaining process with OPSEU. The bargaining agent also notes that the new IRCC changes, regarding study permit emissions, will result in a budget loss of over $3 billion in the next two years.

In a press release published on Oct. 9, the CEC says both parties have made proposals to modernize how workload is assigned to teachers, but that the union’s demands would reduce the number of weeks a full-time professor could teach to a maximum of 29 weeks a year, seven weeks less than the current 36.

Dr. Laurie Rancourt, Chair of the Management Bargaining team, says that faculty are the backbone of the college sector and they deserve to be recognized for their hard work.

“That’s why the CEC has tabled breakthrough proposals based on data from the Flaherty workload taskforce report, adding mode of delivery into the workload formula, and an increase in preparation and evaluation time for certain modes and additionally, increases to wages and benefits,” Rancourt said.

Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC, says they remain optimistic that conciliation will help them find a path forward, but that they are also aware that the CAAT-A bargaining team has been telling its members it needs a strike mandate.

“The students and college system do not need a strike to address the Faculty Bargaining Team’s demands. We urge all academic employees to review both sets of proposals and get informed before voting in the strike vote next week,” Lloyd said. “Students don’t deserve to have their semester interrupted for demands the Union bargaining team knows the CEC can never agree to.”

All proposals and demands from the CEC and OPSEU can be found on the CEC website.

How this impact students

Picture of North campus, exterior. — *Picture by Humber Polytechnic — Humber’s Digital Asset Management.*

A successful strike vote does not mean college faculty members will immediately go on strike, but it tells the CEC that faculty are ready and willing to strike if an agreement is not reached.

The longest Ontario faculty strike happened in 2017, when students were out of the classroom from Oct. 17 to Nov. 21. Back then, Humber Polytechnic allowed students to request a full-tuition refund by a determined deadline. Those who did not request a refund had their holiday break cut short and some colleges, including Humber, cancelled their reading week.

IGNITE remains committed to supporting Humber and the UofGH students in any potential outcomes. The next step for students is to keep updated with reliable sources, including news releases from the OPSEU and CEC.

In the event of a potential strike, IGNITE will provide daily updates on ignitestudentlife.com/news/ and on Instagram @shareignite. In the weeks leading up to a potential strike, IGNITE will share any news updates.

This is a developing story.

Feature image courtesy of Humber Polytechnic — Humber’s Digital Asset Management.

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