Talks resume between striking Ontario faculty and colleges
Posted Nov 2, 2017 11:17:33 AM.
Last Updated Nov 2, 2017 01:28:57 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Striking faculty and the council representing Ontario’s 24 colleges resume bargaining today in a bid to end a labour disruption that has left 500,000 students out of class for more than two weeks.
Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews said yesterday that both sides will return to the bargaining table at the request of a mediator to re-start talks for the first time since the strike began on Oct. 15.
Matthews has resisted calls for provincial intervention in the strike, insisting a resolution must be found at the bargaining table.
The Ontario Public Sector Employees Union has called for the number of full-time faculty to match the number of faculty members on contract, but the colleges have said that would add more than $250 million in costs each year.
The colleges had put forward a four-year-agreement that offers a 7.75 per cent pay increase.
The strikes involves more than 12,000 Ontario college professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians.
Meantime, Conestoga College says the first week of winter holidays will be used to make up class time lost during the strike, to ensure students are able to complete their semester and academic year.
In a memo to students, Vice President of Academic Administration Dr. Barbara Kelly says deadlines for assignments, tests or exams may now be scheduled between December 18-22.
Students who can provide evidence of travel arrangements during that week, booked prior to October 16, will be accommodated depending on the course and program.
Although it’s not known when the strike will end, Kelly says students should be prepared to return to class on January 2, 2018.
