OPSEU Academic Employees Get Strike Mandate - Ontario Colleges' Offer Mediation-Interest Arbitration

TORONTO, Oct. 18, 2024 /CNW/ - The results are in and 76% of full-time and partial-load professors, instructors, librarians, and counsellors have voted 79% in favour of a strike.

A strike of any kind is unnecessary. College Employer Council (CEC) has offered mediation-interest arbitration, a process that the Union has recognized as a common way to resolve the issues. 

The OPSEU CAAT-A bargaining team still maintains more than 200 demands on the table with an effective annual increase in College costs of almost $1 Billion.

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," said Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC. "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."

The CEC has proposed breakthrough provisions to address the recommendations of the Flaherty workload taskforce report. These include recognizing the mode of delivery in the workload formula, increased time for faculty preparation and evaluation, and overtime pay provisions for counsellors and librarians.

We urge the CAAT-A bargaining team not to jeopardize student learning. It is in everyone's best interest to conclude negotiations without a strike and for the parties to enter into mediation-interest arbitration.

Let's settle this collective agreement without an unnecessary strike.

About College Employer Council

The College Employer Council (CEC) is the government-mandated bargaining agent for the 24 Ontario publicly-funded Colleges in negotiating Collective Agreements with unionized staff. In addition, the CEC provides a variety of services for the College system such as advice and guidance on human resource issues, Collective Agreement administration, research, and is the policyholder for group benefits.

SOURCE College Employer Council

For further information: or media inquiries, contact: Abby Radovski, Director of Communications, [email protected], [phone]; Graham Lloyd, CEO, [email protected], [phone]