College talks collapse

By MICHAEL JIGGINS

Staff Writer

 

Any hope for a negotiated settlement to end the province's 16-day college faculty strike has vanished.

That's the view of Graeme Aubert, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 417 representing faculty at St. Lawrence College, who is calling on the province to intervene and force the sides into binding arbitration.

"Any reasonable intervention that will get us back into the classroom is what we want," he said, indicating he'd support back-to-work legislation. Otherwise, he said, losing the semester is a real possibility for students.

Aubert's comments came after talks between OPSEU and the council representing Ontario's 24 community colleges broke down Wednesday afternoon.

"There's not much choice anymore. Students have to get back into the classroom in the next few days," Aubert told The Recorder and Times.

Aubert said "it's at a very critical point right now" in terms of saving the semester for students.

"But (faculty are) all ready to get back to the classroom and work with each college's management to make it work for the students," he stressed.

"Obviously we're hugely disappointed and I must say a little frustrated," said Pennie Carr-Harris, executive director of human resources at St. Lawrence College, in reacting to the breakdown.

Carr-Harris said the colleges are open to arbitration, but not the binding process advanced by OPSEU.

Instead, she said they're proposing what's known as final-offer selection, where both sides table a last settlement package and an arbitrator chooses one.

Colleges would prefer that process because the arbitrator would examine the offers in the "context that we're operating in," she said.

"We're still $200 million apart," said Carr-Harris. "We've tried to say all along that there just isn't that kind of money in the system."

As to saving the semester, Carr-Harris conceded some programs will have to be extended into May.

"We need (faculty) in at the end of March to hope to achieve (scheduled completion times) for most of our programs," she said.

The college has posted some broad details of its so-called semester completion strategy on its website and in a letter to students.

"As time goes on, we'll be able to get more and more explicit," said Carr-Harris in conceding the lack of details.

"The completion plans are finalized with faculty and we need them in the door," she noted.

In the meantime, she encouraged students to prepare for a return to classes by continuing to work on assignments and reading ahead.

The three days of talks this week - the first since the strike began March 7 - broke down Wednesday afternoon with the two sides reporting no progress.

Some 9,100 teachers, librarians and counsellors - including 35 full- and part-time staff in Brockville - walked off the job in a dispute they say is about improving the quality of education for Ontario's 150,000 college students.

They're calling for the hiring of more full-time instructors to bring average class sizes down to 25 from the current 29.

Carr-Harris has said the deal proposed is simply unaffordable.

She's said class size isn't an issue at campuses outside the Metro Toronto area and argued paying for the union's proposal would inflict serious fiscal hardship on colleges like St. Lawrence.

Aubert said the fact talks broke down was "kind of expected."

"Based on the college's team, I felt that not much movement would happen. É We are disappointed," he said.

He blamed the breakdown on the college council's inflexibility and the inexperience of its negotiators.

"I understand that the colleges have their offer and that's been the sticking point," Aubert said.

"People will say (the strike) is not about money, but when you talk about workload and class sizes, that translates into money," countered Carr-Harris.

"It's just not there."

With files from The Canadian Press