Ontario College Strike

[Birdy]

Oh, and i do hope the union lets the faculty vote!

[SaggyBalls]

hear hear!

[phishtaper]

either side can call for a vote here. the union figures its not worth calling the vote because they dont support the offer on the table right now and it would indeed be unusual for a union to ask members to vote on an offer it didnt support. they want to continue negotiations.

but the union cannot prevent the colleges from asking for the vote. the colleges have the authority to do so. but rather than just doing that, the colleges are playing the PR game and making everyone think the union wont let its members vote.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

There's such a lack of consensus about the whole deal between the colleges, too, and among the faculty at each college. It's feeling so surreal, to be this powerless either way.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Last step now taken:

Ontario College Teachers Threaten Strike Feb. 11

Ontario's 9,000 college instructors are set to strike Feb. 11 unless there's an agreement in place or arbitration under way by then.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents the instructors, set the strike date Monday, but also called for binding arbritration in a last-ditch attempt to avoid walking out.

"Our members are telling us loud and clear, 'Do everything you can to avoid a strike,' " Paddy Musson, Fanshawe College faculty union president said Monday.

Under the OPSEU proposal, the union and colleges would bargain until midnight Feb. 10.

"Bargain hard until then. Get whatever we can agreed to, then give whatever is left to an arbitrator," Musson said.

"Both sides would put their case forward and live with the results."

If the colleges do not agree to arbitration or do not come back to the table to negotiate, instructors will walk off the job Feb. 11, OPSEU warned.

"As long as arbitration is going on, we would not leave the classroom," Musson said.

About 200,000 college students would be affected if instructors at 24 Ontario colleges were to walk off the job.

"It is really disappointing," Fanshawe College president Howard Rundle said Monday of the union's actions.

The Ontario College Compensation and Appointments Council made its final offer to the union last week, and was hoping OPSEU would take that offer to its members for a vote.

"Not only have they gone ahead a set a strike date . . . they seem to be marching toward a strie, they completely ignored the request to take our offer to the membership," Rundle said.

College negotiators will decide over the next few days if they will agree to the union's offer of binding arbitration, or if they will askfor staff to vote on their final offer, Nancy Hood, vice-chairman of the college council bargaining team, said.

"Our negotiations are finished," she said. "We're just too far apart."

The instructors voted 57% in favour of a strike on Jan. 13.

At Fanshawe, instructors voted 59% against a strike.

The colleges made their latest offer last week, proposing a 5.9% wage increase over three years. The colleges council said that would raise the maximum salary to more than $102,000 a year by September 2011.

OPSEU says a potential strike is less about wages than non- monetary items, such as changes to the workload and preparation time.

The latest offer presented by the employer was essentially the same one rejected by staff through a strike mandate, said Ted Montgomery, chair of the faculty bargaining team for OPSEU.

Meanwhile, Fanshawe is already making plans to make sure students do not lose ground if a strike occurs, Rundle said.

Extending the school year beyond the end of April would be "a last resort," Rundle said.

Randy Richmond is a Free Press reporter.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

And now, minutes later, the colleges are putting the offer to a vote by faculty, college by college, before the strike date.

Man, all this high-stakes gambling is exhausting. But at least each person gets to vote.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Sorry, I know - Politics Forum .

[phishtaper]

And now, minutes later, the colleges are putting the offer to a vote by faculty, college by college, before the strike date.

DEM, have you been told by anyone official as to what the implications will be of a Yes or No vote?

Im also struck by your phrase, "college by college" ... are you suggesting that different colleges may go different ways depending on their own results?

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Sorry - didn't mean to suggest that (the college-by-college thing). I think I was thinking of the diversity among the colleges while I was writing that. I expect it'll draw more people out of the woodwork, though.

If there's a Yes vote, it means we get a collective agreement. If it's no, then it's strike-time.