Striking college faculty rally in Toronto on Oct. 25, 2017.Thomas Campean/The Canadian Press
Hopes for a resolution to the strike at Ontario's 24 colleges were dashed on Monday as talks between the two parties broke down and the group representing the schools announced that it would put its offer directly to the union's membership.
Approximately 500,000 full- and part-time students have been shut out of classes since Oct. 16 when the strike began. Some colleges have already announced that courses will be extended to Dec. 22 and that at least some final exams are likely to be held in early January. None of the past three college strikes in Ontario have led to students losing their semester. But students have grown increasingly anxious in this round, organizing rallies at Queen's Park and online petitions demanding their money back.
"Students were concerned at first about assignments and getting them in on time and getting the grades they deserve and about having professors help with graduate school applications," said Jahmoyia Smith, a member of the student council executive at Fanshawe College in London, Ont.
Ms. Smith said she has had to put her own law-school application on hold because professors have not been available to write reference letters for her. "Now students are concerned about having to switch flights for trips home, which will cost them. And they are worried about next year if the entire school year goes past April," she said.
It was not clear on Monday evening whether classes would resume while the vote by the membership took place. The Ontario Labour Relations Board is responsible for setting a date for such a vote, a process which can take up to 10 days. The College Employer Council, the organization that conducts bargaining for all colleges in Ontario, has asked the Ontario Public Service Employees Union to suspend the strike until the results of the vote in. But the union leadership said its members are willing to continue picketing.
Still at issue is the degree of control that faculty members would like to have over curriculum and course materials.
Asking college instructors to vote directly on its offer is a high-stakes gamble by the employer council. Ontario labour legislation allows employers to present a deal to employees, even if a union's bargaining team has rejected the terms of that offer. But such a vote can be held only once.
"An employer vote is never a preferred path, because a settlement should be reached at the bargaining table," said Sonia Del Missier, the chair of the bargaining team for the College Employer Council. "But we have exhausted all efforts at the bargaining table and now our faculty will decide."
If faculty members reject the deal, the strike would continue, jeopardizing students' semester. That would force the provincial government to consider back-to-work legislation to save the term.
Premier Kathleen Wynne and Deb Matthews, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development, have repeatedly said they would prefer to see a negotiated agreement. But last week, the Premier did not rule out forcing the striking instructors back into the classroom. On Monday, the government said the issue was now with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
"Through all of this, our focus is on students and their learning," Ms. Matthews said in a statement. "I know students are feeling the effects of this strike deeply, and I share their concern," she said.
The failure of talks came as a surprise to the union, bargaining representatives said.
Talks between the parties had resumed on Thursday for the first time since the strike began, and the union and the employer council moved from their positions during the course of four days, both said.
"We thought we were going somewhere," said Shawn Pentecost, one of the bargaining committee members for the union. "We were sure there would be a path forward. When this was dropped this morning, we were shocked."
A central obstacle to making a deal – a union demand that half of teaching faculty be full-time instructors rather than a fifth, as it says is the case now – was resolved by agreeing to have a provincially led task force study the issue.
"The task force will look at staffing models and the issue of precarious labour, so why don't we have a deal?" said Don Sinclair, the chief executive of the College Employer Council.
Instructors' demand to control classroom learning was a steady refrain during the strike.
"It's control over the evaluation scheme I use in my classroom, it's control over whether or not my students have met the learning outcomes as the person teaching them," said JP Hornick, chair of the faculty bargaining committee for OPSEU.