Days of negotiations led the colleges and union bargaining teams to announce they reached a deal in the early morning on Oct. 15.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) said in a press release that picket lines are coming down and work is scheduled to resume for full-time support staff on Oct. 16 after being on strike since Sept. 11.
The College Employer Council (CEC) said in an announcement released Oct. 10, it invited the OPSEU bargaining team into a private mediation starting on Oct. 11, which concluded this Wednesday, Oct. 15
The weekend-long sessions were with mediator and lawyer William Kaplan, “in an effort to end a four-week-long strike,” according to the CEC.
CEO of CEC Graham Lloyd said in an announcement that it has been a challenging five weeks for those involved.
“We appreciate the persistence of the bargaining teams on both sides, and the guidance of Mediator Kaplan, to reach this agreement,” he said.
OPSEU said the next step for members is to vote on whether to accept this tentative agreement
It said that members are still under the last collective agreement until they vote to accept or decline the terms.
The ratification vote is not scheduled but must be completed by Nov. 4, tentative on accepting the agreement, OPSEU said.
The union said in a town hall meeting there would be stronger contracting-out provisions, and the agreement ensured members would see a two per cent increase to base salary each year. There is also a domestic violence leave provision in the proposed agreement. Recall and severance are enhanced, and it said it has secured language to protect days that don’t get scheduled for Vacation carryover.
It said shift premiums will go up for the first time since 2005. People who work 5 p.m. to midnight now receive an extra dollar on top of the 75 cents extra an hour.
OPSEU said the agreement allowed for more benefit increases in vision care, hearing aids and footwear.
The CEC laid out in the Oct. 9 bargaining update that it had offered, among other things, wage increases of two per cent, six per cent vacation pay and two sick days per year and workplace sexual harassment protections.
It stated OPSEU was demanding a six per cent wage increase and a two per cent vacation pay boost, five paid sick days for permanent part-time employees.
The CEC said on Oct. 9 that after four weeks of back and forth, “these demands go beyond what colleges are prepared to accept in the current financial climate.”
Chair of the union’s bargaining team, Christine Kelsey, said in an OPSEU press release that the agreement would not have been made possible without members holding strong these last weeks.
“We had no choice but to fight back amidst a plan to privatize public education, as well as 10,000 job losses and over 650 program cuts across the system,” she said. “The public now understands that our college system is being deliberately defunded as part of the collateral of Ford’s devastating privatization agenda."
OPSEU said the letter to invite the CEC back to the bargaining table stated that the CEC bargaining agent had spread misinformation about the negotiations and is focusing on “media tours, rather than work towards a resolution.”
“Students, understandably, have been outraged to learn this. Convocations are being cancelled, student access to critical services and support is limited or unavailable, and the semester is slipping away,” it stated.
The CEC said the OPSEU bargaining team demanded that any type of "support staff role" can only be performed by support staff,” in an Oct. 6 bargaining update. It said this would mean a dean cannot inform a student about financial aid opportunities or study techniques.
The CEC said in that update that remedies were already available to prevent management from taking over support staff responsibilities.”
Humber's Faculty of Media, Creative Arts and Design will be hosting coffee meetings, listening sessions and team meetings as support staff return, according to an email message on Wednesday by Senior Dean Guillermo Acosta.
"This is a time for reconnection, healing, and renewal," he wrote. "We are grateful to have you back, and we are committed to walking this next chapter with you, together."
Meanwhile, the part-time support staff workers are voting to determine whether they will give a strike mandate to their bargaining committee in negotiations for a new contract. If more than 50 per cent are in favour of a strike, it would give the union the ability to seek a legal strike position, called a no board report, and if necessary, allow them to go on strike.
OPSEU said the employer is considering the union’s proposals of consideration for full-time jobs, stronger sexual harassment language, transfer into the bargaining unit, cancelled shifts, increased wages, vacation pay and paid sick days.
It said a few other proposals have been met with a “no.”
The CEC said the mediation sessions are scheduled for Dec. 12 and Jan. 28.
OPSEU said that if the strong majority votes yes with the highest participation, it “gives your bargaining team more power at the bargaining table."
It said part-time support staff workers will receive their unique voting credentials via email, which will have the information needed to vote.
The CEC said on Oct. 14, part-time support staff agreed not to strike for 16 days after the part-time support staff mediation sessions if an agreement is not met.
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