A strike at Ontario’s 24 public colleges has been averted after both sides reached a last-minute agreement on Thursday night to enter binding interest arbitration.
The college faculty branch of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents more than 16,000 professors, instructors, librarians and counsellors, had planned to walk out on Friday if their demands were not met.
The union was in talks on Thursday with the College Employer Council in an attempt to reach a negotiated settlement before the strike deadline. The CEC is a government-mandated bargaining unit that represents Ontario’s 24 publicly-funded colleges.
Both parties tweeted on Thursday night that they had reached a deal and the strike, which was set to begin at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, is now called off. All work-to-rule strike activities are expected to stop as well.
The strike would have affected more than 210,000 students.
Key issues in the labour dispute were workload, the contracting out of faculty work, and benefits for part-time faculty, according to the union.
Earlier this week, Ontario Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop said: “Students cannot afford a strike at this time.”
The union, in a letter to the colleges, had said that binding interest arbitration is a common way for labour disputes in the post-secondary sector to be resolved and would not be a win for the union or the colleges, but for students.
Academic employees at Ontario colleges have been working without a collective agreement since Sept. 30, 2021. Negotiations between the two sides broke down in November, and last month staff voted to reject the latest offer from the council.
Binding arbitration involves asking a neutral arbitrator to resolve a dispute by building a compromise from two competing proposals.
The CEC and <a href=”https://twitter.com/OPSEU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@OPSEU</a>/ <a href=”https://twitter.com/SEFPO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@SEFPO</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/CAATfaculty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CAATfaculty</a> have reached an agreement to enter binding interest arbitration and the strike that was scheduled to commence at 12:01am on March 18, 2022, is called off. This also includes all work-to-rule strike activities. <a href=”https://t.co/HxCWGEG72I”>pic.twitter.com/HxCWGEG72I</a>
—@CECouncil
*CAAT-A BARGAINING ANNOUNCEMENT*<br><br>The parties have reached an agreement to enter binding interest arbitration and the strike that was scheduled to commence at 12:01 am on March 18, 2022, is called off.<br>This also concludes all work-to-rule strike activities. <a href=”https://t.co/ab9966pVXh”>pic.twitter.com/ab9966pVXh</a>
—@CAATfaculty
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