College faculty prepare for strike vote
College faculty prepare for strike vote
In this edition: lockout or job action looms for Ontario colleges, PHO's provincial risk assessment of Omicron, meet the parliamentary secretaries
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In this 7 minute read, colleges in Ontario are preparing for job action or lockdown — what you need to know about the negotiations and strike vote. Plus, Trudeau names parliamentary secretaries and inside Public Health Ontario’s provincial risk assessment of the Omicron variant.
THE LEDE
Lockout or job action is looming for colleges in Ontario. A strike mandate vote for college faculty will begin Thursday after talks between the government-mandated agent representing the province’s 24 publicly-funded institutions and the union representing college faculty stalled in mid-November.
The College Employer Council is the government-mandated agent for bargaining with unionized employees on behalf of the colleges. The 17,000 faculty members are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. Both parties have been negotiating a new collective agreement since early July.
What happened? The previous contract — which was set to expire on September 30 — was frozen until a new collective agreement was reached by both sides. In early July, the two bargaining teams met via Zoom to discuss ground rules of negotiation, provide opening statements and initial proposals. By mid-September, the college council tabled a “without prejudice settlement offer,” which allows both bargaining teams to address shared interests.
In mid-November, the council declared that both mediation and conciliation have failed, requesting a no-board report. According to the union, the report was issued on November 23. This triggers a 17-day “cooling off” period before the current collective agreement freeze ends next Monday. That is the earliest a lockout can be imposed, and faculty are in a legal strike position.
In a phone interview with newsBeyond, JP Hornick, the chair of the college faculty bargaining team said the strike vote will begin on Thursday, calling the process “unnecessarily stressful for everyone.” “What we said to the employer was that if you're going to file a no-board report, then we have no choice,” Hornick told us.
Without a job action mandate, Hornick says the colleges can impose any labour conditions once the current collective agreement freeze ends. If job action were to occur, the union has promised students and faculty that they would not start with a full strike. “We’re going to go to a work-to-rule situation,” Hornick added.
“Unfortunately strikes start with strike votes and we hope we can avoid any labour interruption,” Graham Lloyd, CEO of the College Employer Council told newsBeyond in a statement. “The colleges will never lock-out faculty or impose terms that negatively affect employees and students,” Lloyd added.
Faculty demands — workload, staffing, equity and professionalism
The faculty demands include four themes — workload, staffing, equity and professionalism. Here are some highlights, according to Hornick:
Increase time for grading student work: “Right now, the maximum time any faculty has to grade student work is just over 5 minutes per student per week. We’re looking for a modest increase of up to 7 minutes per student per week while we collect data through a task force that would actually have teeth.”
Partial load faculty: “Many partial load faculty have been working in colleges for decades, but they have to reapply for their job every four months. They simply don't have the same workload protections as a full-time. Full-time faculty have a 44-hour week maximum, so our class sizes are limited. Colleges can generally cram as many students as they want into partial-load faculty classes, and they get paid just by the teaching contact hour. Basically, they're exploited and underpaid. We’re trying to take make some gains for those folks, as well.”
Private colleges and international students: “The Auditor General's report that came out recently about private colleges that target international students and the lack of oversight and quality in the exploitation of those students. One of the things that have been happening with the Ford government is that they've been really pushing for the colleges to contract with private colleges. We're trying to keep that work from going outside the public system because that's where the oversight and quality of education is maintained.”
“We're not arguing about compensation,” Hornick warned. “The compensation cap for public service workers applies to college faculty, so everybody is limited to 1% per year for at least three years. Nobody is arguing about wages. We can't.”
College council requests ‘final offer selection arbitration’
Lloyd says the council “has asked for Voluntary Binding Final Offer Selection Interest Arbitration.” “This proposal enables an arbitrator to determine whether an agreement can be reached and if not, to make a final binding decision selecting one proposal or the other without any amendments,” he added.
In a statement to newsBeyond, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour said “we encourage the employer and the union to make every effort to resolve their differences at the bargaining table.” Minister Jill Dunlop’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the ongoing dispute.
The last negotiations between both parties took place in 2017 — the result of which was a five-week strike before back-to-work legislation was passed by Kathleen Wynne’s government.
NEWS WATCH
A motion fast-track a bill banning conversion therapy was unanimously adopted by the House of Commons. The House erupted in cheers as Conservative MP Rob Moore (Fundy Royal) read the motion — Government House Leader Mark Holland exchanged handshakes with his Tory counterpart Gerard Deltell. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau crossed the floor to thank Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. Liberal MP Rob Oliphant shared a hug with Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner. With the passage of the motion, the bill will move to the Senate.
Sports minister Pascale St-Onge says the federal government has not decided on a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics in February. Canadian athletes will attend the Olympics, and St-Onge said she “totally respect[s] their independence and the decision they’re making.”
The Liberals have named MP Alexandra Mendès (Brossard—Saint-Lambert) as the second Assistant Deputy Speaker. She served in the same position in the previous Parliament and joins the ranks of three other presiding officers — housekeeper Anthony Rota, Rota’s deputy Chris d'Entremont and fellow-Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has unveiled a new roster of parliamentary secretaries. Rachel Bendayan becomes Associate Minister of Finance. Gary Anandasangaree becomes Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney General. Adam van Koeverden becomes Parliamentary Secretary to Health Minister, while Bryan May joins Anita Anand at National Defence. Yasir Naqvi takes two gigs — one with Bill Blair and another with Marco Mendicino. Marie-France Lalonde becomes Parliamentary Secretary to the Immigration Minister.
In a risk assessment released by the agency last week, Public Health Ontario said that the risk of Omicorn importation to Ontario is high. The province has since confirmed multiple cases of the variant — one is Peel Region, one in Hamilton, three in Toronto, one in York, one in Durham, four in Ottawa. There is no information on disease severity, according to the agency. The risk of testing impacts on the province is low and the risk of decreased vaccine effectiveness is moderate. More from PHO.
Ontario is accelerating eligibility for booster shots to those aged 50+ as of Monday. Eligible individuals can book via the provincial booking portal six months after their second dose. Expanded eligibility will start in January, with a six-to-eight-month interval, according to the Ministry of Health.
WHAT WE’RE READING
CBC NEWS: “Threatened with insolvency, Green Party considers closing its head office” by David Thurton
TORONTO STAR: “The mission is done: With the two Michaels released, Canada’s ambassador to China is ready to move on” by Tonda MacCharles
“Let kids celebrate Christmas at school, Education Minister Stephen Lecce tells Toronto Catholic teachers” by Kristin Rushowy
CNN: “White House announces US diplomatic boycott of 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing” by Allie Malloy and Kate Sullivan
NEW YORK TIMES: “CNN Fires Chris Cuomo Amid Inquiry Into His Efforts to Aid His Brother” by Michael M. Grynbaum, John Koblin and Jodi Kantor
TVO: “Everyone’s waiting for John Tory to announce his intentions” by Steve Paikin
TRIVIA CORNER
Last week’s question was: when are MPs expected to move back to the Centre Block? Renovations are expected to last until 2030 at the earliest and will cost up to $5 billion. More from the federal government.
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: What was the name of the provincial Minister of Colleges and Universities during the 2017 college strike. Here’s a hint — they previously served as the province’s Minister of Health. Send your answers to newsbeyondca@gmail.com or reply to this email.
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