Ontario's public college support staff could go on strike on September 11 if no deal is reached, the Colleges Employer Council warns.
The council, which represents Ontario’s 24 public colleges, said the Ontario Public Service Employees Union has notified it full-time support staff will start strike action on that date if there's no collective agreement.
Meanwhile, the council accuses OPSEU of rejecting calls for interest arbitration.
"OPSEU is looking for a strike when it should be looking for a deal on behalf of full-time support staff," said the council's CEO Graham Lloyd. "A strike does not benefit anyone in the college community, not students and not their members."
The council publicly released some of its proposals on Wednesday, including a two per cent wage increase each year of the contract, increased on-call and shift premiums, enhanced employee stability rights, and removal of CEC proposals that the union called concessionary.
In comparison, it said OPSEU wanted a total ban on campus mergers and closures during the life of the agreement, wage increases of four per cent each year of the contract, a ban on staff reductions, expanded gender affirmation coverage, and another 17 paid days off for family and other types of leave for a total of 42 paid days off a year.
The two sides return to the bargaining table on September 9 and 10.
Earlier this year, OPSEU and CEC avoided a strike by college faculty, librarians, and instructors by agreeing to binding arbitration.