Updated at 4:38 p.m. Nov. 16: According to a report in The Toronto Star, after meeting with Premier Kathleen Wynne this afternoon, the College Employers Council and OPSEU negotiators have resumed talks in an attempt to end the Ontario college strike.
The strike is now in its fifth week (today is Day 32). Few details are available, but Sudbury.com will continue to follow the story.
Original story
The Ontario Public Sector Employees Union says 95 per cent of college faculty cast a ballot in this week's forced vote on a deal to end the now 32-day-old college strike, and a full 86 per cent rejected the offer.
In voting this week, 86 per cent of faculty voted to reject Council’s November 6 offer. Ninety-five per cent of the 12,841 people on the voters’ list voted.
“No one is surprised that college faculty rejected the Council’s forced offer,” said JP Hornick, chair of the faculty bargaining team for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), in a news release. "It was full of concessions and failed to address our concerns around fairness for faculty or education quality.
“Let’s get back to the bargaining table and complete these negotiations.”
On Nov. 2, the union and the College Employer Council (CEC) resumed bargaining, this time with a mediator in place. The two sides were close to a deal at the end of October, with one outstanding issue — academic freedom — to discuss on Monday.
Academic freedom means faculty having the ability to make decisions for their course, including having a say in evaluation methods, delivery methods, final marks, textbook selection, course design, content and research. Currently, management has the final say, with no way for faculty to challenge any of the decisions.
Precarious work — where workers fill permanent jobs but are denied permanent employee rights — is also at issue.
On Nov. 6, the CEC called for a forced vote to try to bring the strike to end. Under the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act, the employer can force a vote on its offer any time after 15 days before the collective agreement expires.
But it can only do it once – this is council’s one and only chance to avoid a negotiated settlement — and it failed.
Sonia Del Missier, a former vice president of Cambrian College who's chairing the CEC bargaining team, called the faculty's rejection of the offer "terrible."
“Ontario college faculty have exercised their democratic right and by rejecting the offer have chosen to continue to strike,” said Del Missier. “This is a terrible result for the 500,000 student who remain out of class.
“I completely sympathize with our students who have been caught in this strike for more than four weeks. The strike has gone on for too long — and we still need to resolve it and get our students and faculty back in class.”
Del Missier said the bargaining team will be in touch with the provincially appointed mediator today to seek direction.
Premier Kathleen Wynne is apparently meeting with negotiators from both sides today to try to reach a solution.
In a statement, OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas congratulated faculty for rejecting the offer.
“Calling for this vote was a bully move by (the CEC). At a time when we were only a few steps away from getting a deal, they overplayed their hand and robbed students of two weeks of their education," he said. “Council’s bargaining team should either settle this strike immediately or resign and be replaced by competent negotiators.”
