The union representing 10,000 striking college support staff says it has “zero appetite” for arbitration despite its employers’ call for it to help reach a deal.
With the strike in just its second day, and no negotiations planned, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union again set up pickets at the province’s 24 colleges on Friday.
Their strike, called early Thursday, came after talks broke off with the College Employer Council, which bargains on behalf of the schools. The council has said it cannot agree to union demands to guarantee no job losses or further program cuts.
The council has been urging mediation or arbitration, saying that helped reach a deal earlier this year with faculty, but OPSEU president JP Hornick rejected the call.
“These are folks who really need to draw a line in the sand about what they need in order to preserve not just their jobs, but the system itself,” Hornick said. “We’re not doing that聽鈥 the team has zero appetite for arbitration. Workers know there’s more and that they deserve better.”
The job action could delay some labs and affect student services on campus, but classes are expected to continue going ahead as scheduled.
Graham Lloyd, CEO of the College Employer Council, has previously told the Star that when “enrolments and revenues are down by as much as 50 per cent, OPSEU continues to insist on demands that are fiscally impossible” given huge cuts by the federal government to the number of international students聽鈥 who pay much higher tuition rates聽鈥 as well as an ongoing tuition freeze and limited government funding.
Lloyd said asking for “a complete ban on campus closures, college mergers and staff reductions could force colleges into bankruptcy ... (the council) has repeatedly advised OPSEU that these types of demands simply can never be agreed to. ”
The full-time college support staffers represented by OPSEU hold a variety of jobs, including disability services, library technologists, trades, co-op placement co-ordinators, food services and IT.
About 10,000 jobs have been lost in the college sector over the past year alone, out of a total of about 60,000 staff and faculty.
The college council said its final proposal included a $145 million boost to wages and benefits, including a two per cent wage increase each year.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn noted that while not a party to labour negotiations, “we are monitoring the situation closely and remain hopeful that all parties reach a fair deal that puts students first.鈥
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