Ontario Colleges Academic Employees Continue Without a Collective Agreement

62 % voted to reject the employer final offer

TORONTO, Feb. 18, 2022 /CNW/ - This week, Ontario College full-time and partial-load instructors, professors, librarians, and counsellors voted on the employer final offer.  Of the 66% that voted, 62% voted to reject the employer final offer. This means that 41% of the bargaining unit rejected the offer.

"We are disappointed that academic employees have rejected the employer final offer. There remain very few outstanding Union demands, but the CEC has repeatedly told the faculty bargaining team that they are unacceptable and management can never agree to them," said Dr. Laurie Rancourt, Chair of the CEC bargaining team.

Currently, academic employees are engaging in what they refer to as work-to-rule.

"The Union has asked the Colleges to consider voluntary binding interest arbitration. It is not the answer to concluding negotiations. The parties have the responsibility to bargain and negotiate a settlement that both parties can live with. The Union has proposed to delegate its obligation to a third party" said Graham Lloyd CEO of CEC. "We are not prepared to have an arbitrator "split the difference" on key issues that Colleges have already stated are unacceptable to begin with and this vote result has not changed that. In essence, there is nothing to split."  

The Colleges will continue to operate until an agreement is reached or OPSEU decides to escalate beyond work-to-rule.

About College Employer Council

The College Employer Council (CEC) is the government-mandated bargaining agent for the 24 Ontario publicly-funded Colleges in negotiating Collective Agreements with unionized staff. In addition, the CEC provides a variety of services for the College system such as advice and guidance on human resource issues, Collective Agreement administration, research, and is the policyholder for group benefits.

SOURCE College Employer Council