Ontario minister says college students can't afford for faculty to strike this week

Ontario college students can't afford a strike right now, the province's post-secondary minister said Tuesday, days ahead of a planned full withdrawal of services by faculty.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union's college faculty bargaining team, representing professors, instructors, librarians and counsellors, has told colleges that they will go on strike Friday if the institutions don't agree to binding interest arbitration.

Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop said she has heard from students and parents who are very upset.

"Students cannot afford a strike at this time," she said at an unrelated news conference in Brampton, Ont.

"They're finally back in the classroom. That's where they need to be. That's where their best education is, where they're collaborating with their colleagues and their faculty."

Premier Doug Ford said he doesn't like when anyone goes on strike, "especially in these conditions, when we went through such tough times."

The College Employer Council says it will agree to final offer arbitration, which allows an arbitrator to simply choose between one final offer or the other.

"By insisting on interest arbitration to conclude this round of bargaining, the union has refused to recognize that the colleges have not asked for anything and have already agreed to many of the union demands," the employer council said in a statement this week.

"It is not lost on us that by stating it will accept interest arbitration, OPSEU is prepared to accept compromise if it is forced, but is unwilling to propose any on its own initiative."

The colleges say the union is demanding changes the employer cannot make, and point to an October 2021 report from a mediator concluding that he saw no path to settlement with the union proposals that remained, calling them "highly aspirational and completely unrealistic."

The union recommended its members reject the colleges' final offer in January, listing key issues as workload, the contracting out of faculty work, and benefits for part-time faculty.

In a letter Monday to the colleges, the union wrote that binding interest arbitration is the common way for labour disputes in the post-secondary sector to be resolved, and would be not a win for the union or the colleges, but for students.

"While we believe that the best deals are reached through continued negotiations, you have told us from the outset of bargaining that you are unwilling to negotiate unless we drop our proposals that you find unacceptable," the union wrote.

"(Binding interest arbitration) would end the negotiations without a strike or lockout. All you have to do is AGREE."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 15, 2022.