Bargaining breaks down between OPSEU and colleges

Nick Seebruch
Bargaining breaks down between OPSEU and colleges
St. Lawrence college faculty members on the picket line outside of the Cornwall campus (Alycia Douglass/ TC Media).

CORNWALL, Ontario – St. Lawrence College announced on the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 6 that the negotiations between striking faculty and the colleges have broken down.

The Ontario Public Service Union (OPSEU) which represents faculty members and the College Employers Council (CEC) had returned to the negotiating table on Nov. 1 after two and a half weeks of no talks.

St. Lawrence College claims that the union rejected the latest offer from the colleges.

“The OPSEU faculty bargaining unit has rejected a revised offer from Ontario Colleges that addressed the concerns raised at the bargaining table. Ontario colleges have asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to schedule a vote on the Colleges’ offer,” St. Lawrence College claimed in a statement on their website. “The vote will let our faculty decide on the offer and hopefully end the strike.”

Grant Currie, President of the Local OPSEU Council 417 which represents faculty at St. Lawrence College said that the CEC wanted to impose a vote on them that they did not want to accept.

St. Lawrence College President Glenn Vollebregt said he was disappointed in the outcome.

“I am extremely disappointed to let you know that OPSEU faculty have rejected a revised offer from Ontario Colleges that addressed the concerns raised at the bargaining table,” he said in a written statement on the St. Lawrence College website. “This is an upsetting outcome for both students and faculty.”

Vollebregt had previously stated that should the strike end that students would get 48 hours notice before the resumption of classes.

He did not want to speculate at which point the semester might be cancelled, but did state that no student has lost their semester to a strike in the past 12 years.

Students have been out of class for more than three weeks.

Share this article