Union advises faculty to vote ‘no’
The College Compensation and Appointments Council announced this morning that they will be bringing their final offer directly to faculty. The colleges placed a request to the Ontario Labour Relations Board to prepare a strike vote after the Ontario Public Service Employees Union announced a strike deadline yesterday, of Feb 11. The union indicated it would be open to binding arbitration.
College teachers voted Jan. 13 to give OPSEU`s bargaining team a strike mandate.
Last week, the OPSEU bargaining team rejected management`s final offer, and denied requests to bring the proposal to faculty. The union, representing 9,000 academic staff at Ontario`s 24 community colleges, told the Appointments Council that if they want teachers to vote on their final offer, that they could bring it to faculty themselves, which is what the colleges are now doing.
“We are asking that the offer go to a vote because we think the faculty should have an opportunity to have their say,” said Rachel Donovan, chair of the college`s bargaining team, in a release.
The day of the vote is yet to be determined.
UPDATE: OPSEU has released a statement encouraging faculty to vote ‘no’ to the college’s offer. However, the union says if the colleges are unable to arrange a vote on the proposal until February 12, that OPSEU would postpone its Feb 11 strike deadline to give faculty a chance to vote on management’s final offer.