Full-time support staff at Ontario's 24 public colleges are on strike.
The College Employer Council issued a release late Wednesday night, saying it couldn't reach a tentative deal with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union by the deadline.
It said OPSEU refused to drop so-called "poison pill" demands that would bankrupt colleges.
"A complete ban on campus closures, college mergers, and staff reductions would force colleges into bankruptcy," said CEC's CEO Graham Lloyd. "CE has repeatedly advised OPSEU that these types of demands simply can never be agreed to. They are more about broader political campaigns than the benefits we have proposed at the table for their members."
The CEC said college enrolments and revenues are down by up to 50 per cent.
OPSEU represents 10,000 full-time staff at Ontario's colleges. It said the colleges' bargaining agent walked away from the table, leaving the remaining proposals unanswered. It said its bargaining unit was left alone at the bargaining table for eight hours before the strike deadline.
"It's unconscionable that we've yet to see any goodwill from the employer to protect frontline jobs that support students in our communities," said Christine Kelsey, the chair of the College Support Full-Time Bargaining Team. "We're seeing library technologists eliminated at colleges only to be replaced by vending machines just weeks later -- what's next?"
"We've lost culinary and hospitality programs in underserved, northern and rural regions where those are dominant employment sectors, while multi-million dollar awards go to just a handful of hospitality giants," said OPSEU President JP Hornick.