Both sides in Ontario colleges dispute agree to return to bargaining
Posted January 15, 2010 6:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario’s 24 colleges and their instructors are to resume bargaining next Tuesday in the hope of heading off a strike.
The colleges made the request Thursday, following a strike vote by the province’s 9,000 instructors the night before.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents the instructors, accepting the invitation to get back to the table.
On Wednesday, instructors voted 57 per cent in favour of giving OPSEU a strike mandate. The union said the earliest it would call a strike would be mid-February.
Rachael Donovan, who heads the colleges’ bargaining team said colleges can’t afford the instructors’ demands, but added there is room to negotiate if the union is also prepared to move.
The colleges said the union’s proposals would cost $218-million annually, while the union claimed they would cost “far less.” Key issues include pay, workload or collaborative decision-making.
