Strike Averted at Ontario Colleges

Ontario Colleges enter into Binding Arbitration with OPSEU Academic Employees

TORONTO, Jan. 7, 2025 /CNW/ - College Employer Council (CEC) and OPSEU have agreed to enter into binding arbitration with full-time and partial-load professors, instructors, and librarians. 

"We are pleased to have averted an unnecessary strike at Ontario's 24 public Colleges," said Graham Lloyd, CEO, of CEC. "Our goal throughout negotiations has been to recognize the hard work of academic employees and to keep students in class. To this end, CEC offered several breakthrough proposals such as enhanced benefits for all academic employees and improved access to benefits for partial-load employees. Throughout the bargaining process CEC has put students first. The threat against their learning has been averted. Both OPSEU and CEC reached an agreement to arbitrate by finding compromises on many of the outstanding demands".

The parties have mutually agreed that arbitrator Kaplan will further mediate and then arbitrate on proposals that remain unresolved. 

"It was important to us to provide stability to students at the start of their semester," said Dr. Laurie Rancourt, Chair of the Management Bargaining team. "We are encouraged that OPSEU has prioritized students by agreeing to binding arbitration." 

This is good news for our students as classes will continue to run as scheduled this week and no strike action will occur. 

About College Employer Council

The College Employer Council (CEC) is the government-mandated bargaining agent for the 24 Ontario publicly-funded Colleges in negotiating Collective Agreements with unionized staff. In addition, the CEC provides a variety of services for the College system such as advice and guidance on human resource issues, Collective Agreement administration, research, and is the policyholder for group benefits.

SOURCE College Employer Council