College Faculty bargaining update: Defending education starts now

Bargaining Bulletin 17:

Today, we received the No Board report we requested from the Ministry of Labour. As per our last update, this initiates the 16-day countdown before labour action, or an employer lockout, can begin – setting January 4th as the first possible day of labour action.

A five-day notice must be communicated during, or after, this 16-day period by either party prior to escalation. No labour action will commence without formal notice.

The terms and conditions of the collective agreement are frozen during this time. Bargaining can continue throughout, and beyond, this countdown; however, should the College Employer Council (CEC) continue to maintain harmful concessions and demonstrate a lack of meaningful engagement in the bargaining process we will be in a legal position to call for labour action.

Faculty proposals center on the foundations of quality education – less precarity, better wages, enhanced job security, and an end to the unpaid labour that the Workload Task Force identified the Colleges currently receive – all while costing less than a quarter what the province will spend on a new luxury spa in Toronto.

As faculty, we know what our teaching counterparts in school boards across Ontario are already experiencing: student needs are on the rise. Our current workload formula, which hasn’t been updated in 40 years, doesn’t cut it anymore. 

In addition, half of our workforce is precarious, only paid for hours they are in front of the class.

The bottom line is that our unpaid labour and growing job insecurity is propping up the college system after decades of mismanagement.

In spite of chronic underfunding by the province, the Colleges continue to fail in their responsibility to advocate for the funding needed to stabilize – instead, capitalizing on an increasingly precarious workforce and price-gouged international tuition to rake in historic profits.

Now, the CEC and the Colleges are implementing an austerity agenda that undermines the bargaining process. Workers and students should never pay the price for the failure of the Ford government and the Colleges in mismanaging post-secondary education in Ontario.

The CEC’s public joust that we are “reducing classroom time” is a way to exclude prep work, evaluation, and curriculum development as integral parts of teaching – and to avoid addressing that faculty don’t have enough time for real student support, even with each member contributing over $24,000 of unpaid labour a year.

Despite the CEC’s persisting misinformation about our proposals, we continue to show reasonable movement while focusing on our key priorities: no concessions, better wages to combat the cost-of-living crisis, an end to unpaid labour, and enhanced job security protections.

We remain willing to negotiate a contract that meets members’ demands and avoids a disruption to the semester – but we will not settle for a contract worse than today’s while the Colleges threaten members with austerity.

The CEC is encouraged to review their previous proposals and remove all concessions prior to scheduled mediation on January 6-7, 2025 to make our time together productive.

Solidarity,

Your CAAT-A Bargaining Team:

Ravi Ramkissoonsingh, L242, Chair (he/him)
Michelle Arbour, L125, Acting-Chair (she/her)
Chad Croteau, L110 (he/him)
Bob Delaney, L237 (he/him)
Martin Lee, L415 (he/him)
Sean Lougheed, L657 (he/him)
Rebecca Ward, L732 (she/her)

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