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More than 10,000 college support workers go on strike across Ontario
While the provincial government is not a direct party to these negotiations, the onus to better fund the college system lands squarely on Premier Doug Ford's shoulders, said Hornick. They said the Ford government has driven the public education system into the ground by defunding programs and jobs.
Picketers are ready to fight for the education of current and future students, said OPSEU President JP Hornick at a news conference at Humber College.
Instead, Hornick said to the boos of picketers, "billions of tax payer dollars" have been redirected into the resource-rich GTA area and the privatized career training system. Over 55 community groups have joined the Ontario Federation of Labour's pledge to support striking workers, said the union.
Post-secondary classes from Sault Ste. Marie to Kitchener to Oshawa are in full swing, but the strike will bring essential services at public colleges to a halt. Picket lines at those schools will be in effect at various times and locations, the union said.
The provincial government did not answer CBC's question about whether Titan has received provincial funding.Asked about the union's request for legislative support, a spokesperson for the labour ministry replied,
"Our government will continue to take action to support and strengthen our workforce as we have done through our $2.5 billion Skills Development Fund, which has trained over 124,000 workers in the manufacturing sector since 2021."
Nabbout told union supporters on Wednesday that it's not too late for the company to turn around the relationship with its workers, but it will not get concessions from them, and it will not break the union.
It just goes to show that the administration is scared of the solidarity between faculty and support staff, he said at the news conference. "Only we workers in the college system can save ourselves," he said. Colleges have been increasingly relying on tuition from international students due to low levels of provincial government funding and a years-long tuition freeze and have been struggling since the federal government enacted a cap on international students.
A government-commissioned report found in 2023 that Ontario's college funding per student is just 44 per cent of the level of the rest of the country.Negotiations failed after the OPSEU "insisted on its 'poison pill' demands," said the CEC in an update on its website on Wednesday. It says the union's demands are fiscally impossible in a time when college enrolments and revenues are down by as much as 50 per cent.It's also "categorically false" that the CEC walked away from negotiations Wednesday evening, said CEC's CEO Graham Lloyd. He said the negotiation team informed the union they wouldn't respond to their last offer, unless certain "unacceptable" measures were changed.Those measures included the prohibition of college closures, campus mergers and any layoff or reduction of staff during the contract period.
The CEC has said the union's demands would expose colleges to more than $900 million in additional costs, although the union disputes this figure.The CEC urged the union to agree to arbitration to avoid disruption to student learning.
A spokesperson for Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn noted that the province is not at the table."We are monitoring the situation closely and remain hopeful that all parties reach a fair deal that puts students first," Bianca Giacoboni wrote in a statement.The province earlier this year announced $750 million for science, technology, engineering and math programs at colleges and universities, on top of a previously announced $1.3-b
Classes and labs will continue as scheduled at most schools, but student support services may be delayed or reduced, according to notices on websites at Fanshawe College, Algonquin College, Canadore College, College Boréal and Conestoga College.
Faculty, part-time professors, librarians, counsellors, and part-time support staff are not part of the ongoing strike and bargaining process, said the notices.
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