On Friday, College Faculty voted to authorize strike action, if necessary, to reach a fair agreement. Through a historic turnout – 76.1% – 79% of voters delivered a strong mandate determined by a true majority of all members.
During talks, it was OPSEU/SEFPO that initially raised the prospect of a limited pause on any escalation by both parties following the strike vote, so that we could continue discussions in conciliation, and ensure that negotiations could continue without risk to student’s semesters. We even agreed to mediation (not binding interest arbitration) as a potential solution to help both sides move closer on key issues.
Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the CEC has mischaracterized these recent events, breaking confidentiality, and announcing an offer of interest arbitration following the democratic decision of faculty members to deliver a strong strike mandate. They are pushing dangerous concessions, and they know that moving to binding interest arbitration at this point would be the easiest way to achieve their agenda – including the loss of asynchronous teaching hours, dramatic cuts to assigned evaluation and preparation hours, new probationary language for partial-load faculty, and dramatic changes to the academic year.
Accepting binding interest arbitration would give up our right to strike and sacrifice our ability to stand behind faculty proposals through member-driven bargaining.
As said in 2021 by Graham Lloyd, CEO of the CEC, “In a labour relations context, the parties have the fundamental obligation to bargain. Delegating that obligation to an arbitrator abdicates our shared responsibility.”
The CEC’s announcement is a knee jerk reaction to college faculty making history with the biggest show of collective power to date. With the CEC on their backfoot, they hope we will all blink. However, our focus is clear: bargaining for a fair, negotiated settlement that does not sacrifice hard-fought rights, and which achieves real gains to our wages and working conditions.
No more concessions: we need material improvements
College faculty don’t want to strike. We need a fair agreement that makes headway on workload language that has collected dust for 40 years. We need contract improvements that curb precarity and allow members to keep up in an affordability crisis. We want a willing party on the other side of the table, prepared to bargain fairly.
In no uncertain terms, a strike mandate sends the strongest possible message: drop your concessions and bargain our proposals fairly at the table. Under the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act (CCBA), a strike mandate is also members’ only legal protection should the CEC seek to impose terms and conditions.
We urge the College Employer Council (CEC) to listen to the teachers, librarians, and counsellors who bring students’ educational experience to life.
Members know that we cannot give up hard-fought rights by accepting concession language. Our rights today were bargained by yesterday’s members, and they are not ours to give away. They belong not just to us, but the generations of workers that will come after.
We will not sacrifice student learning conditions – shaped through our working conditions – by accepting concessions which risk increased employment instability, encroachment on vacation, real time cuts to wages, reduced time for teaching, and further increases to workload.
Why avoid binding interest arbitration now?
Not only would binding interest arbitration give up our right to strike and bargain, but it also risks cementing the CEC’s serious concessions into contract language through an external legal decision.
The CEC was quick to quote OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick speaking about accepting binding interest arbitration in 2022 – when circumstances were vastly different.
In 2021-2022, Bill 124 prevented free and fair collective bargaining by sharply constraining wage increases. This view was subsequently validated by the Superior Court of Justice, and later upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal. We were also in the midst of a global pandemic, struggling to respond to various challenges and crises raised by COVID-19.
Given the barriers to bargaining freely, members looked at alternative solutions – like taking outstanding issues to binding interest arbitration.
But, according to OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick, there should be no barriers to bargaining a renewal collective agreement in 2024, with a focus on implementing recommendations from the Workload Task Force – mandated at the end of the last round to inform bargaining now.
“With an accumulated surplus of $1 billion over the last year alone, the Colleges have the resources to fulfill their core mandate: training Ontario’s future workforce through teaching, learning, and student support,” said Hornick. “There’s enough money to prioritize quality education, while responsibly navigating any uncertainty. Faculty and students will continue to stand strong and demand it.”
While things are different today than in 2021-2022, one thing remains the same: the CEC is favouring distractions over their duty to bargain with the clear, collective voice of members standing together.
No more shortchanging student and faculty futures
The CEC’s latest communication is a reckless attempt to provoke a response from the bargaining team. In addition to breaking confidentiality and mischaracterizing bargaining, the CEC continues to promote grossly inflated and unsubstantiated costing of faculty proposals. It’s a tired tactic. We’ve asked for the breakdown (in person and via email) regarding their costing of our proposals to which Lloyd himself declined outright at the bargaining table on October 8. They continue to publish this figure without substantiation. However, this does suggest that the CEC understands that the system is being supported by free labour that has gone unrecognized since workload formulas were last updated in 1985.
In the proud shadow of Friday’s historic strike mandate – a crucial step closer towards a fair, negotiated settlement – we encourage members and students alike to continue discussing the important issues defining this bargaining round because our working conditions and students’ learning conditions are tied at the hip.
We are stronger together, and we will get the contract we stand for.
In solidarity,
Your CAAT-A Bargaining Team