Support staff strike enters week two at Conestoga College as bargaining stalls
Posted Sep 18, 2025 07:13:10 AM.
Last Updated Sep 18, 2025 09:23:54 AM.
The support staff strike at Conestoga College and colleges across Ontario enters its second week today, as Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the College Employer’s Council (CEC) are seemingly no closer to reaching a deal.
About 10,000 support staff workers walked off the job last Thursday as the union demanded better pay and job security for workers at Ontario colleges.
“This is not just a fight for a contract – it’s about the future of student support,” said OPSEU in a statement on its website on Thursday. “Students deserve quality services kept in-house – not contracted out – and done by the support staff who know how to do the job and have institutional knowledge, not management.”
OPSEU claims that the employers have failed to respond to the union since 4 p.m. on Wednesday, meaning they have allegedly walked away from the bargaining table.
“Maybe the CEC needs to get back to the table and actually bargain,” said Vikki Poirier, president of OPSEU Local 238 representing support staff at Conestoga College.
The CEC is demanding that OPSEU drop its demands or proceed to arbitration, and has called the union’s comment for job security a “poison pill” that has halted any chance for a deal. The council claims that OPSEU’s current demands would cost Ontario colleges more than $400 million, bringing operations to a standstill.
According to the CEC, Ontario colleges have tabled more than $145 million in enhancements already, which includes a 2 per cent wage increase and certain benefit improvements.
“The employer has disrespected us for far too long,” said OPSEU in a statement on Wednesday.
In May, Conestoga College cut nearly full-time 180 support staff because of alleged pressures the school continues to face in the wake of the federal cap on international students. Conestoga College President John Tibbits claims that international student enrollment has dropped by 20,000 since the fall semester of 2023, resulting in a financial loss of approximately $450 million.
Support staff workers are picketing along Conestoga College Boulevard and Homer Watson Boulevard in Kitchener, slowing traffic at that intersection in order to get their information into the ears and hands of residents.
This has reportedly led to some tensions between drivers on Homer Watson Boulevard and the picketers.
“There’s been some incidents where students are going around instead of just waiting their turn, they’re taking a dip to the left and going very fast into oncoming traffic to try to go past the line,” said Poirier. “We will continue to get our information out there; it’s important.”
The union has requested that some information be sent out to students at Conestoga College in order to avoid further incidents like they’ve seen over the past week.
On Friday, the union is hosting a day of solidarity, inviting the public to join them on the picket lines at noon to support their job action.
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