Ontario college faculty are ready to walk the line.
As of Friday, March 18 at 12:01am if the College Employer Council (CEC) hasn’t agreed to voluntary binding interest arbitration, then upwards of 16 thousand faculty will be going on strike.
Since December, faculty members represented by OPSEU/SEFPO who are full-time and partial-load professors, instructors, librarians, and counsellors have been on work to rule.
Typically in contract negotiations “binding interest arbitration” is used as it allows a third (and neutral) arbitrator to come in and help resolve negotiation conflicts.
However in this case the CEC has offered Final Offer Selection Arbitration; where the arbitrator would choose one of the offers on the table from each party.
The union has refused this offer.
The CEC says that the unions demands are unattainable, with OPSEU representatives making similar comments backing their own stance that they haven’t made any unreasonable demands, and everything they’ve asked for is easily achievable.