Negotiations to resolve a nearly three-week-old strike by full-time support staff at Ontario's public colleges have broken off.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union stated that talks with the College Employer Council broke down on Monday after the employer refused to agree to job security provisions for striking workers.
"After thousands upon thousands of layoffs across the system, there's nothing else this fight could be about," said chair of the full-time support staff bargaining team, Christine Kelsey. "None of the employer's proposals saves a single job. True job security looks like protections against the elimination of jobs, not extended notice or streamlining new pathways for layoffs."
The College Employer Council, meanwhile, is expressing frustration, accusing OPSEU of abruptly reversing course during mediated talks, derailing progress, and prolonging the strike.
"The morning we went into mediation, Georgian College announced the closure of its Orillia and Muskoka campuses," said Kelsey. "It is clear that the plan to privatize and sell off our public college system is well underway."
OPSEU has also taken issue after tens of millions of dollars in public funds were awarded to for-profit businesses with ties to the Ford government. Ontario's Auditor General is currently investigating the Skills Development Fund, and a report is expected on Wednesday.
Mediated talks began last Friday and were extended through the weekend when negotiations appeared to be making progress.
The CEC said it tabled enhanced offers, including improvements to contracting out and tech change protections, increased wages, on-call pay, and bereavement leave.
OPSEU took two so-called "poison pill" demands off the table, but the CEC says the union then tabled an ultimatum. It proposed a ban on all contracting out unless the union approves it.
"Support staff employees already have protections in those areas," said CEO of CEC Graham Lloyd. "The current collective agreement already prohibits layoffs as a direct result of contracting out. OPSEU is going much further by insisting colleges can never contract out any services without its permission. It is not possible to operate a college that way, but we listened to the union's concerns, and they rejected the CEC's proposed enhanced protections in this area."
