Students Relieved: Can Finally Focus on Academics

A province-wide faculty strike has been averted

TORONTO, Feb. 24 /CNW/ - This afternoon, Ontario's college students finally received some positive news as the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) revealed the official count on the colleges' final offer, says the College Student Alliance (CSA). It is now official that Ontario's college faculty have voted to accept the colleges' final offer by a majority of 51.45% and avert a province-wide work stoppage.

"Students are relieved to hear that their education and training will not be jeopardized this academic year due to a faculty strike," says Justin Fox, President of the College Student Alliance. "Students have been waiting for months to know for certain whether or not their education would be interrupted because of labour unrest."

After nearly nine months of bargaining, a strike mandate and a vote on the college's final offer, Ontario's full-time professors, librarians, counselors and partial load instructors now have a new three year collective agreement. On February 10th, faculty unofficially voted 51.25% in favour of accepting the colleges' final offer, but with such a narrow margin the OLRB was asked to provide the official results. After taking ten days to review the ballots and include the segregated and mail-in ballots, the OLRB has reported that 4473 voted to accept and 4221 voted to reject the offer.

"The most important task ahead for both the colleges and the faculty will be to put any remaining issues and feelings behind them and get back to focusing on providing students and Ontarians with the education and training needed to prosper in today's knowledge-based economy," adds Fox.

For more information on the new agreement and for what students think, visit www.collegestrike.ca.

The College Student Alliance (CSA) is an advocacy and leadership organization, which has been proudly serving Ontario's college and college-university students since 1975. The CSA currently represents 17 colleges and 25 member councils with over 127,000 full-time student members throughout the province.

For further information: Tyler Charlebois, Director of Advocacy, College Student Alliance, T: [phone], C: [phone], E: [email protected]; Justin Fox, President, College Student Alliance, T: [phone] ext. 4524, C: [phone], E: [email protected]