The team representing colleges in negotiations with striking Ontario faculty says they have reached an impasse in negotiations and plan to take their latest offer directly to faculty members for a vote.  

In a news release Monday afternoon, college bargaining team chair Sonia Del Missier said the group’s latest offer “addressed all faculty priorities” and accused the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) of ‘stonewalling’ the bargaining process.

“We need to end this strike and get students back in the classroom. We have asked the Labour Board to schedule a vote and let our faculty decide,” Del Missier said in the release.

Both sides returned to the bargaining table on Thursday in an effort to find a deal to end a faculty strike at Ontario’s 24 colleges that has dragged on since Oct. 16.

Faculty members have been seeking greater fulltime employment, more job security and a stronger say in academic decision making.

In a message sent out to faculty members Monday, OPSEU called the colleges’ return to bargaining last week “a publicity stunt” and said they are forcing a vote “on an offer that largely peddles the same concessions that they have been pushing for months.”

OPSEU further said that the proposals by the college team would have “devastating negative consequences on the college system for generations to come.”

At a news conference Monday afternoon, the college bargaining team said they didn’t understand why OPSEU didn’t accept their offer and felt that nothing more would be achieved through bargaining.

“It’s clear to us that this won't be resolved at the bargaining table,” College Employers Council CEO Don Sinclair said.

However speaking with CP24 Monday afternoon, faculty bargaining team member Ravi Ramkissoonsingh said the college team has “thrown a bomb into the process” with their latest move.

He said he felt the two sides had made significant progress at the bargaining table and that the final point of disagreement was around academic freedom.

“We felt like we were actually quite close. We were optimistic here today,” Ramkissoonsingh said.

He said the language the colleges were proposing around academic freedom was “extraordinarily weak,” but he felt there was room for the sides to come together. He added that now, he has serious doubts about whether the semester can be salvaged.

“I think the chances are zero that our members will accept this offer. Where will that leave us?” Ramkissoonsingh said.

While the College Employers Council – the group representing the colleges – has had the ability to take a vote directly to faculty members, they have declined to do that so far because the union bargaining team has not endorsed a deal.

The college team said that organizing a vote through the Ontario Labour Relations Board would take between five and 10 days and called on OPSEU to halt the strike during that period so that students don’t lose more time.

“We believe if they want to end the strike quickly, they should come back to the bargaining table,” OPSEU bargaining chair J.P. Hornick told CP24. She called on the college team to return to the bargaining table.

The strike has meant that nearly 500,000 college students have been out of the classroom and has triggered concern among students about whether they will be able to complete their semesters.

An online petition has called on students to be refunded for missed class time. Sinclair said that would be a matter to be decided once the strike is resolved.