Ontario colleges’ faculty reaches deal to save school year

TORONTO, Ont. – Ontario’s 24 colleges have reached a tentative deal with their 10,000 faculty members, Wednesday.

The new contract, which comes only days before the start of the school year, is said to compare to the former one – a two-year deal with a two-year salary freeze, no new education position, and eligible faculty members would still move through the grid with benefits remaining untouched.

Don Sinclair with the College Employers Council said the question was “how could we get an agreement that kind of met the government’s agenda, but also at the same time, ensure that we were not going to disrupt the students’ school year?”

“Essentially both parties ended up withdrawing all their proposals,” Sinclair said. “[It] falls in line with the government’s direction. It gives the colleges a pause for a couple of years. It’s good news, will not interrupt the academic year for our students.”

Ted Montgomery, the Chair of the faculty union OPSEU’s bargaining team, said they saw the McGuinty Liberal’s heavy handed approach with both elementary and high school educators, and hoped to reach a quick deal.

“We’re pleased to have a deal,” he said.”We acknowledged the fiscal realities and we acknowledged that this government has targeted teachers in particular, so we’re prepared to take that pause for two years.”

As a result, many of the sticking points from these negotiations – such as compensation for online courses and the creation of a new teaching position – are likely to come up again in 2014.

The two main issues pushed both sides to sign the contract, which still requires ratification by union members. The faculty was threatening to walk off the job in a strike, while the McGuinty government has shown it is not afraid of legislating teachers back to work.

A strike vote had initially been set for September 10, leaving 300,000 Ontario college students without classes. 

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