Ontario college strike involving 24 schools averted

A strike that was looming to begin Thursday at Ontario’s 24 colleges has been averted with classes scheduled to continue.

The bargaining agent for Ontario’s 24 public colleges and the union representing around 15,000 faculty members have agreed to enter into binding arbitration.

This follows after over six months of negotiations between the two sides – which while mostly remain at an impasse on certain issues, have agreed to send all outstanding items to mediation-arbitration.

The college employer council met this week in Toronto for mediation with the Ontario Public Services employees union.

Tuesday night they announced that “significant benefit gains” were agreed upon, but outstanding matters will be resolved by an arbitrator.

The College Employer Council says that classes will resume as scheduled this week.

Issues include work conditions and job security.

Colleges union eyeing Premier Doug Ford as ‘root causes’

While the two groups work toward a plan that works, the union said in a statement that “all eyes are on Premier Doug Ford for his starring role in manufacturing the crisis in our colleges.”

It reads that the the Ontario government has not developed a strategic plan to mitigate the risk of the impact on the college sector the sudden decline in international students would cause.

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