Ontario colleges warn of potential strike in the new year

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The union representing Ontario’s college faculties, including Ottawa’s Algonquin College, has requested a no-board report from the Ministry of Labour, which would put its members in a strike position early in the new year.

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The College Employer Council (CEC), the bargaining agent for Ontario’s 24 colleges, said OPSEU’s demands “ignore the stark reality faced by Ontario colleges, who are projected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years due to a combination of declining enrolment and higher cost.”

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A no-board report is a notice from the Ministry of Labour that a conciliation board will not be appointed when an agreement can’t be reached. It is usually requested only when bargaining has completely broken down. After a no-board report is issued, the parties must wait 17 days before commencing a legal strike or lockout.

OPSEU represents more than 950 full and partial-load teaching faculty, counsellors and librarians at Algonquin College, as well as locals in the province’s other colleges.

Local 41 president Tracy Henderson said if there is a job action at Algonquin, union members will be following the same labour action as any other Ontario college, which could include a work-to-rule.

Under the current contract, this could mean each student receives between one and five of grading and feedback time a week, and only two hours of administration time a week, she said.

“This might mean selective labour withdrawal — like all faculty doing no out-of-class assistance, through to a full labour withdrawal like a strike,” she said.

“We don’t know what that labour action will look like yet until the bargaining team makes that call for the province.”

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Graham Lloyd, the CEO of CEC, said the colleges entered mediation last week with OPSEU. At the end of the three days, both parties agreed to extend mediation and meet again on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7.

The CEC had agreed to continue non-binding mediation and OPSEU’s move to file for a no-board report was “deeply disappointing.”

“Throughout this bargaining process the CEC’s goal has remained the same: keep students learning and faculty in the classroom,” said Lloyd.

Times are uncertain for the post-secondary sector as colleges and universities face a sharp loss of revenue from international students and activities and colleges and universities contemplate what to cut.

Last January, the federal government announced it was setting an intake cap on international student permit applications for two years. In August, the provincial government announced it was suspending all new college international activities, pending a review of entrepreneurial activities. 

The consequences are becoming apparent, and job and programs are on the line.

Last month, senior administrators at Carleton University warned that an anticipated $26-million deficit this year is now “significantly higher,” and the Carleton “has reached a point where significant measures are necessary to address annual deficits in the short and medium term as we continue planning towards long-term financial sustainability.”

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In Hamilton, Mohawk College cut its administrative workforce by 65 positions and suspended more than a dozen programs as the college projected a $50-million deficit next year. Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto announced it was temporarily closing a campus.

Meanwhile, there are other uncertainties on Ottawa’s post-secondary labour front in the coming months, including a strike mandate at the University of Ottawa — although that can’t happen until the first week of February at the earliest because of timelines of the conciliation process.

The last faculty strike was a costly one for Algonquin.

The five-week strike in the fall of 2017 affected about 500,000 Ontario college students. The province legislated faculty back to work, and later said students who withdrew could apply for a full tuition refund.

Algonquin saved about $8.2 million in unpaid salaries, but that was more than offset by extra expenses and lost revenue. The college ended up spending an extra $6.7 million

Algonquin declined a request to comment about possible labour disruptions, deferring to CEC.

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“OPSEU’s demands represent vast reductions in classroom teaching time, and a maximum of 29 weeks of available teaching time in a year,” said CEC in a statement.

“OPSEU’s last offer of settlement amounts to more than $1 billion in new annual costs which represents an increase of more than 55 per cent of total academic costs to the colleges.”

OPSEU’s Henderson said job security is a top priority for the union. About half of Local 41 members at Algonquin have precarious employment, working contract to contract, semester by semester, she said.

“Those people are only paid for the hours they are in front of the class — there is no recognition of the grading or preparation work being done by those contract members.”

The workload formula has not been updated since 1984, before email was created, let alone student accommodations, online learning, or artificial intelligence, said Henderson.

“The majority of our members are working well over the 40 hour work-week with that outdated 1984 workload formula. These are not conditions we would tolerate for our students, and we won’t tolerate them for ourselves either.”

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The CEC initially proposed interest arbitration and continues to urge the academic bargaining team to agree, said Lloyd.

“The CEC remains committed to finding a solution without interrupting students learning. We urge OPSEU to reconsider their approach in favour of an outcome that is fair and sustainable for everyone.”

In the meantime, colleges are contingency planning should OPSEU continue to choose to escalate, said Lloyd.

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