Ontario colleges ask for final offer vote to end four-week-old faculty strike
Posted Nov 7, 2017 04:05:14 AM.
Last Updated Nov 7, 2017 06:41:56 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Ontario’s colleges have called for striking faculty to vote on a final contract offer after talks to end the four-week labour disruption broke down Monday.
The College Employer Council, which represents the province’s 24 colleges, says it has asked Ontario’s Labour Relations Board to schedule the vote.
It has also called on the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union, representing the 12,000 college workers, to suspend the strike in the eight to 10 days it will take to organize the vote.
OPSEU bargaining chair JP Hornick says the council has walked away from the talks when only one outstanding issue, a request on academic freedom, remained unsettled.
After three weeks away from the table, negotiations had resumed last week at the urging of Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews, who asked both sides to get a deal done.
The strike has cancelled classes at the province’s colleges, impacting 500,000 full time and part time students.
