Canadore College faculty, along with their colleagues across Ontario, have set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. October 16 in contract talks with their employer, the College Employer Council.
The employees are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU)
There are presently 108 full-time faculty members employed at Canadore but there are another hundred or so that are only getting part-time work.
See: Canadore profs could strike in just over two weeks
And: Canadore confident in negotiations despite strike mandate
John Patterson is President, Local 657 at Canadore.
He tells BayToday that the issues locally are similar to those provincially.
"Equal pay for equal work, looking at precarious work and the elimination of full time positions," he said. "North Bay has lost a lot of jobs over the years at the college. We lost 60 faculty jobs in the last six years and seen quite an increase in the number of part-time, contract faculty and people teaching online. We've seen a big rise in the number of administrators, so we've seen this shift at Canadore.
JP Hornick, chair of the union bargaining team said “Today was another frustrating day at the bargaining table, during which our employer once again refused to consider key faculty issues. The purpose of setting a strike deadline is to get negotiations moving – before it’s too late.”
OPSEU represents over 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians working at 24 public colleges across Ontario. Union members include full-time permanent and “partial load” contract faculty who teach seven to 12 hours per week.
“Our union team has been clear about its goals since bargaining began in early July,” Hornick said. “We have put forward concrete proposals to improve education quality by including the voices of faculty and students in academic decisions; we have made the case for strengthening the complement of full-time faculty; and we have called on the colleges to read the signals from Queen’s Park and start treating contract faculty fairly.
“Unfortunately our employer is not moving forward on the issues faculty care about most – even in the case of no-cost items like academic freedom or longer contracts for contract faculty.”
OPSEU President Smokey Thomas cautioned the College Employer Council against waiting to the last minute to negotiate.
“Students already have enough to worry about with their courses and exams and tuition fees,” he said. “They don’t need the stress and anxiety of not knowing if they will be in class next week.
