Faculty at Ontario’s 24 colleges, including Loyalist College, could go on strike as soon as this Thursday.
The members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union gave a five-day notice of labour action on the weekend.
The union, which represents about 15,000 full- and part-time professors, instructors, librarians, and counsellors, is scheduled to meet with the College Employer Council (CEC) in non-binding mediation Monday and Tuesday.
The OPSEU bargaining team says it remains committed to bargaining productively but believes if a deal cannot be reached in mediation, labour action is likely.
A press release issued by college faculty on the weekend says their agenda centres on quality education and a system that doesn’t run on exploiting workers and students.
They say their work can’t come at the cost of floating the college system on their unpaid labour: about $24,500 per faculty member, annually.
The CEC responded on Monday saying colleges remain committed to recognizing the hard work of faculty through its proposals and have made every effort to address OPSEU’s workload demands through proposals on modes of delivery, increased out-of-class assistance for students, overtime pay provisions for counsellors and librarians, and increases in wages and benefits.
About 450,000 students attend the province’s two dozen colleges.
