Both sides still talking as college students in Oshawa & Whitby hope to avoid a faculty strike

Reddit threads are full of people with opinions on a potential faculty strike at Durham College and the 23 other colleges in Ontario, with some talking sides on the issue and others offering sky-is-falling scenarios that has instructors hitting the picket lines an imminent and foregone conclusion.

The two sides in the dispute, however, are still talking so a strike seems unlikely at this time.

Faculty at Ontario’s two dozen public colleges, including Durham College in Oshawa and Whitby, voted in favour of a strike mandate Friday, with a record turnout of 11,484 members (76.1 per cent) voted 79 per cent in favour of walking out if a new contract can’t be worked out.

Contract negotiations between the OPSEU College Faculty bargaining team, which represents full-time and partial-load professors and instructors, counsellors, and librarians, and the College Employer Council have been ongoing since July 15, with faculty tabling their proposals early last month.

“We’ve delivered a strike mandate authorized by a clear majority of all college faculty,” said the bargaining team. “As the bargaining team for faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges, we’ll utilize this mandate to reinforce our key demands and fight back serious concessions tabled by the College Employer Council that would make our working conditions, and by extension the students’ learning conditions, undoubtedly worse.”

The two sides remain far apart on wages, workload, vacation time and job security.

The OPSEU bargaining team requested conciliation – a process where the parties seek to reach a settlement with the assistance of a conciliator, appointed by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development – and a strike vote.

“While this vote means that the union has a strike mandate, both parties remain in conciliation and other conditions need to be met before the union is in a position to call a strike,” Durham College said in a statement. “With conciliation still underway, classes, labs and campus operations remain unaffected.”

Durham College remains “hopeful” that a settlement will be reached.

One college professor noted anonymously on Reddit that he expects the colleges to “bend over backwards” to make sure the students get through the semester whatever the outcome of the negotiations, adding that no semester has ever been lost to a strike in Ontario college history.

“I have a very, very hard time imagining a scenario in which that’s allowed to happen.”

Local 354, which represents the faculty, counsellors and librarians at Durham College, said the College Employer Council is pushing “dangerous concessions” when what is needed is contract improvements that will allow faculty to “keep up” in an affordability crisis.

“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,” the local said. “We want a willing party on the other side of the table, prepared to bargain fairly.”

The OPSEU bargauining team said it remains focused on a negotiated settlement that “does not sacrifice our hard-fought rights” and achieves real gains to wages and working conditions. “With an accumulated surplus of $1 billion over the last year alone, the colleges have the resources to fulfill the core mandate of the colleges: training Ontario’s future workforce through teaching, learning, and student support.”

“There’s enough money to prioritize quality education, while responsibly navigating any uncertainty.”

The strike mandate, says the union, allows them to “protect our rights” and sends a “powerful message” that faculty stand behind its key demands and proposals.

There are more than 15,000 faculty members at 24 colleges across the province.

With files from Gene Pereira