Ontario college students could soon see their winter semester cut short as the union representing faculty at the province’s 24 public colleges could walk off the job as early as Thursday next week.
On Friday, college faculty represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) gave their five-day notice of job action.
The union, which represents about 15,000 full-time and part-time professors and instructors, as well as counsellors and librarians, has been without a collective agreement since September.
The union and the College Employer Council (CEC) had agreed to enter non-binding mediation from Dec. 6 to 8, but no agreement was reached.
The two sides are scheduled to meet again on Jan. 6 and 7 for mediation as students return to the classroom.
“If we cannot reach an agreement in mediation, it is unlikely that a deal that protects faculty futures can be reached without the urgency of labour action,” the union said in a statement on Friday.
The union has also filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the ministry, claiming that the CEC is bargaining in bad faith.
OPSEU has said its primary concern is over job security, as over 50 per cent of faculty, librarians, and counsellors are employed on semester-long contracts and don’t have long-term job stability.
“Over the last decade, we’ve added just under 100,000 students but only 500 full-time faculty have been hired during that time throughout the system,” OPSEU bargaining team chair Ravi Ramkissoonsingh told CTV News. “Administrators have grown by three times that much.”
According to Graham Lloyd, the CEO of the CEC, the union is making demands that are unreasonable given the financial challenges colleges now face.
He said the union is asking for an extra five weeks of self-directed time in addition to the nine weeks of vacation staff already receive.
“They want to reduce their time in the classroom from 12 hours to less than 9 hours,” he said in an interview with CTV News Toronto earlier this week.
“These demands are something that colleges couldn’t accept in the best of times, but especially in the current climate.”
He noted that colleges are facing a significant reduction in revenue due to the recent cap that has been placed on international students.
“There is one estimate that the colleges will be losing approximately $1.7 billion over two years in their revenue streams,” he said.
With files from CTV News Toronto’s Beth Macdonell and CP24’s Bryann Aguilar