ONTARIO PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION
College faculty will enter legal strike position in new year: "The college system is crumbling - we can't sit back and let its failed stewards bulldoze education."

With no real progress towards a contract which improves the working lives of college faculty across Ontario, the faculty bargaining team requested a "no board" report on December 12. As 2024 draws to an end, Ontario college faculty will enter a legal position to call for labour action in the new year.

"Our college system is crumbling - we can't sit back and let its failed stewards bulldoze education," said Michelle Arbour, acting chair of the faculty bargaining team. "Our basic demands are an antidote, aimed at protecting the core mandate of the Colleges as places of education, not cash-grabs." 

Once the no board report is issued from the Ministry of Labour, the countdown commences - with 16 days elapsing before either party can call for labour action or give notice of a lock out.

"Record profits and runaway administrative bloat - that's the last decade of Ontario's colleges in a nutshell," added Arbour, who has worked as contract and full-time faculty in the Ontario college system since 2012. "We've added three times more managers to the system than full-time faculty. Meanwhile, half of our members work contract to contract, with little to no benefits."

As cuts to frontline staff are announced at campus after campus, the Union headed into mediation with the Colleges' bargaining agents from December 6-8, hopeful to reach a deal before the holidays. However, mediation was unsuccessful.

The Union says it is clear that without the urgency of labour action, the employer will not move off proposed contract language that will erode working conditions, job security, and quality of education.

"The heads of the college system and corporate-friendly politicians have manufactured the present crisis, setting up our college system like a house of cards," said OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick, faculty at George Brown College. "Now, that house is collapsing, and it appears the only contingency plan was austerity."

According to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, every $1 invested in postsecondary education generates return-on-investment at roughly $1.36. Ontario's colleges are important pillars of economic and social vitality in our communities, integral to the province's labour markets and overall economic health.

While a substantial cash injection is long overdue by the province after decades of underfunding, the real-time dismantling of the college system in the interim raises the grave question: what will Ontarians have left after this race to the bottom?

"There are no colleges without faculty," added Hornick. "If we're going to save the system, we need frontline workers setting the agenda, not footing the bill."

The parties will meet once more for non-binding mediation between January 6-7, 2025 - and the union urges the Colleges' bargaining team to prioritize a better path forward to fulfill its responsibility to students, parents, and workers across Ontario.