“School is out” for over 10,000 St. Clairians, and approximately 500,000 of their fellow students across Ontario, due to a faculty strike which commenced on October 16.
Talks to develop a new contract for 12,000 professors in Ontario broke down on the weekend, leading to the work-stoppage.
Here are the two “final offer” commentaries published by the two sides – the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), and the College Employer Council:
OPSEU SAYS ...
More than 12,000 Ontario public college faculty will be on the picket line rather than in their classrooms on Monday morning after talks between the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the College Employer Council failed to produce a tentative collective agreement.
“On October 14, we presented the Council with a streamlined offer that represented what faculty consider to be the bare minimum we need to ensure quality education for students and treat contract faculty fairly,” said J.P. Hornick, chair of the union bargaining team. “We carefully crafted a proposal that responded to the Council’s concerns about costs in a fair and reasonable way.
“Unfortunately, the Council refused to agree on even the no-cost items, such as longer contracts for contract faculty and academic freedom,” she said. “This leaves us with no choice but to withdraw our services until such time as our employer is ready to negotiate seriously.”
Hornick said the Council is committed to a “Walmart model of education”, based on reducing the role of full-time faculty and exploiting underpaid contract workers who have no job security beyond one semester.
OPSEU President Warren Thomas called the current impasse “regrettable”, but said college faculty have the full backing of the union’s 130,000 members and their $72 million strike fund.
“Our union has a track record of getting deals done without work stoppages,” he said. “Unfortunately, that has not happened in this case. Nonetheless, I encourage the colleges to get back to the table so we can wrap this up swiftly, for the good of students and faculty alike.”
OPSEU represents professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians working at 24 public colleges across Ontario.
THE COLLEGE EMPLOYER COUNCIL SAYS ...
OPSEU CAAT Academic has started a strike at all 24 Ontario colleges, and rejected the colleges’ final offer. The colleges’ final offer is responsive to what the colleges heard at the bargaining table and fair to college faculty.
“This strike is completely unnecessary and unfair to hundreds of thousands of students. We should have had a deal based on our final offer. It is comparable to, or better than, recent public-sector settlements with teachers, college support staff, hospital professionals, and Ontario public servants – most of which were negotiated by OPSEU,” said Sonia Del Missier of the Council. “The fastest way to resolve the strike is for the union to accept the colleges’ final offer; or, at the very least, put the colleges’ final offer forward to its members for a vote.”
The colleges cannot accept the union’s demands that would ultimately add more than $250 million to annual costs, eliminate thousands of contract faculty jobs, and jeopardize the quality of college programs.
Union Demands: Costing and Staffing Ratios:
• Demands remain unaffordable, by ultimately adding more than $250 million annually through salary increases and staffing ratios. To put the $250 million cost in perspective, the colleges currently spend $750 million annually on full-time faculty salaries.
• Staffing: Moving to a staffing ratio would increase costs through new positions, and reduce the colleges’ flexibility in meeting the programming needs of our students.
• Salaries: The union is demanding nine percent over three years for a new full-time faculty maximum of more than $116,000, which is out of line with comparable public-sector settlements.
• Contract Faculty Job Loss: Staffing ratios will lead to a net reduction of 3,350 contract faculty jobs.
• Under the union’s proposal, 7,380 contract faculty positions will be lost, with only 4,030 new full-time faculty positions gained
Union Demand: Academic Control
• The union continues to demand academic control by individual faculty members.
• Faculty are critical to academic decision making, but they are not the exclusive voice.
• Our programs require consistent delivery to meet provincially mandated standards and the requirements of accreditation bodies and industry partners.
Union Demand: Staffing Ratios
• Staffing ratios will add hundreds of millions of dollars in costs, reduce program flexibility, and eliminate thousands of contract faculty jobs.
• The reality is that more than two out every three hours in the classroom are taught by OPSEU Academic Bargaining Unit members.
• Full-time faculty are responsible for 49 percent of all teaching contact hours.
• Partial-load faculty are responsible for 22 percent of all teaching contact hours.
• Part-time and Sessional faculty are responsible for 29 percent of all teaching contact hours.
Colleges’/The Council’s Final Offer:
• 7.75 percent over four years, raising new full-time faculty maximum to $115,378.
• New partial-load hourly maximum of $154.26.
• Improved conversion of contract faculty to full-time positions.
• A plan to respond to Bill 148 when it becomes law.
• More faculty autonomy over personal workloads.
• Enhanced benefits.
• No concessions.
