Some 16,000 faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges, including Loyalist College, say they will go on strike at 12:01 a.m. Friday if the College Employer Council (CEC) does not agree to voluntary binding interest arbitration.
Faculty, who are represented by OPSEU, have been working to rule since December and rejected a final from the CEC last month.
The collective agreement ended September 30 with negotiations between the two groups breaking down in November.
JP Hornick, chair of the OPSEU bargaining team, says faculty are desperately trying to avoid a strike but that the CEC is refusing to bargain or be reasonable.
For its part, the CEC says it made “numerous attempts to reach an agreement” with the union, and that the union is, “demanding changes that they know colleges cannot make.”
College faculty across the province went on strike for five weeks in 2017 before the province passed back-to-work legislation.
OPSEU Local 420 currently represents 108 full time faculty members at Loyalist College as well as several part time faculty, librarians and counselors.
