A member of OPSEU’s bargaining team says college teachers could return to work “right away” if the College Employer Council were to take certain “dangerous” concessions off the table.
Speaking to CP24 on Wednesday morning, Darryl Bedford, a member of the bargaining team for OPSEU, the union representing striking Ontario college faculty, said it appeared as though the two sides were making “good progress” at the negotiating table on Sunday night.
“Then on Monday morning, they basically hit us with a call for a forced offer vote,” Bedford told reporters while in the midst of a mass rally held at Humber College Wednesday morning.
The College Employer Council announced Monday that they would take the latest offer, which is not supported by the union’s bargaining team, straight to faculty members, who will be able to vote on the proposed contract via electronic ballot from 9 a.m. on Nov. 14 to 10 a.m. on Nov. 16.
“There is language in there that would undermine full-time staffing,” Bedford said. “There is language in there that would undermine the equal pay for equal work provisions of Bill 148. So all the things that we wanted to maintain or improve there is language in there that undermines that.”
The College Employer Council maintains that they have addressed all of the demands made by faculty and is at a loss for why the union has not accepted their latest offer.
When asked how this move will impact students, Bedford said the longer the strike goes, the more the semester is put at risk.
“We have an offer that if the employer were to agree to it and we could get a tentative agreement, we could return to work right away. We don’t need to go through this whole thing of voting on their offer,” Bedford said.
“We could resolve this now.”
He acknowledged the frustration of 500,000 students impacted by the strike, who have been out of the classroom since Oct. 16 when faculty members at 24 Ontario colleges walked off the job.
“We understand that students are frustrated but students do need to understand the stress that is on our faculty. Every four months they are reapplying for their jobs so this is hard on all of us,” he said.
“We think what the union has put on the table will make things better for students and make things better for everyone.”
The College Employer Council released their offer on Wednesday, which faculty will have the chance to vote on next week. The upcoming vote could potentially end the strike but the union is calling on its members to reject the proposed offer.
The proposed offer highlights wage increases and benefits from college staff.
Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development Deb Matthews has not said if and when the government would introduce back-to-work legislation.
“I know students are feeling the effects of this strike deeply, and I share their concern,” Matthews said in a statement Tuesday.
Speaking to students at a Mississauga high school on Wednesday morning, Premier Kathleen Wynne said the government needs to let the collective bargaining process unfold.
“You never want to have students out of the classroom. You want to be able to pursue their studies and that’s why we have said all along, we want them back in class as quickly as possible," Wynne said.
"But we have a process in place, we have a collective bargaining process in place and we just hope now that it can move as quickly as possible."
