OPSEU sets strike deadline for Feb 11

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union  representing Ontario college faculty announced today it has given college management until Feb 11 to reach an agreement and avoid a strike. Last week, negotiations stalled after the College Compensation and Appointment Council tabled its final offer. Management wants the union to take their proposal to teachers for a vote, while the union says the offer falls too far short of OPSEU’s demands. The union has said that if the colleges want faculty to vote on the deal, they can call the vote themselves.

OPSEU represents 9,000 academic staff at Ontario’s 24 community colleges. The bargaining team was given a strike mandate by faculty in a vote held Jan 13. Whilethe colleges have increased the salary increments on offer, and shortened the collective agreement to three years, down from four, the two sides are still in disagreement on how to implement the recommendations of the Joint Workload Taskforce Report.

In a release, chair of the OPSEU bargaining team, Ted Montgomery said the union is willing to go to binding arbitration. “First and foremost, we want to reach a negotiated settlement . . .If the Colleges won’t bargain that, we are willing to send all our outstanding issues to binding arbitration. The Colleges, however, must agree.”

In speaking notes released to the media, Montgomery says that imposing a deadline will improve the chances of negotiating a deal and avoiding a work stoppage.

As many as 500,000 students could be affected.

For all of On Campus’ coverage of the ongoing negotiations, please click here.