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Mediation

College Support Staff Strike: A Watershed Moment for Ontario's Post-Secondary Sector

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

Dozens of support staff, including disability services and library technologists, picketed outside Humber College's campus in north Etobicoke on Thursday, as their union, the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union (OPSEU), called a strike over job security and working conditions. The strike, which involves 10,000 members, comes as colleges in Ontario grapple with financial challenges that have led to layoffs, program cuts, and campus shutdowns. OPSEU president JP Hornick called the strike a "watershed moment" for the post-secondary sector, emphasizing the importance of in-house services and institutional knowledge.

Key Takeaways:

  • The strike, involving 10,000 OPSEU members, is over job security and working conditions in Ontario's colleges, which are facing financial challenges and have led to layoffs, program cuts, and campus shutdowns.
  • The College Employer Council (CEC) has offered a $145-million boost to wages and benefits, including a two percent wage increase each year of the contract, but OPSEU is pushing for guarantees of no job losses, campus closures, or mergers.
  • OPSEU is also calling on the Ford government to stop diverting funds for public colleges toward private training companies, a demand echoed by the Ontario NDP.
  • The strike has caused disruptions to student services and may delay some lab sessions, but faculty are not part of the job action and classes are expected to proceed as scheduled.
  • The CEC has advised OPSEU that the union's demands for no job losses, campus closures, or mergers are "fiscally impossible" and could force colleges into bankruptcy.
  • The full-time college support staffers represented by OPSEU hold a variety of jobs, including disability services, library technologists, trades, co-op placement co-ordinators, food services, and IT.
  • Approximately 10,000 jobs have been lost in the college sector over the past year, out of a total of about 60,000 staff and faculty.

Statistics:

  • 10,000 OPSEU members are involved in the strike
  • $145 million: the proposed boost to wages and benefits offered by the CEC
  • 2%: the proposed annual wage increase in each year of the contract
  • 50%: the drop in enrolments and revenues that colleges are facing
  • 60,000: the total number of staff and faculty in Ontario's colleges
  • 10,000: the number of jobs lost in the college sector over the past year

Sources:

  • Toronto Star article by Nathan Bawaan and Kristin Rushowy, dated Thursday, [no specific date mentioned]
  • Ontario Public Service Employees' Union (OPSEU) press release, dated Thursday, [no specific date mentioned]
  • College Employer Council (CEC) statement, dated Thursday, [no specific date mentioned]
  • Ontario NDP statement, dated Thursday, [no specific date mentioned]

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