Ontario’s New Democrats have blocked an attempt by the Liberal government to table back-to-work legislation Thursday night to end a nearly five-week strike by college faculty.
Premier Kathleen Wynne said unanimous support of the legislation would have meant students could return to the classroom Monday morning.
Earlier Thursday, it was announced faculty across Ontario voted overwhelmingly against an offer from the college employer council — leading administration at Fanshawe College to announce they’d be extending the fall semester to January 16th or even January 23rd.
“The college employer council was telling the public, ‘hey this is a great offer,” said OPSEU local 110 president, Darryl Bedford.
“[But] they’d inserted language around staffing that the union could not challenge any part-time teaching whatsoever. It had changes to workload, it had changes to starting salary.”
In a media release, the chair of the college’s bargaining team, Sonia Del Missier, said the vote generated a terrible result for the 500,000 students who are left out of class.
“Ontario college faculty have exercised their democratic right and by rejecting the offer have chosen to continue to strike,” said the statement.
“I completely sympathize with our students who have been caught in this strike for more than four weeks. This strike has gone on for too long, and we still need to resolve it and get our students and faculty back in class.”
Outside Fanshawe College early Thursday afternoon, striking faculty walked the picket lines with renewed vigour after hearing the offer was rejected.
“It’s just a relief that we have reason to believe that all the efforts we’ve been putting in to make sure people are being treated fairly, isn’t going to be wasted by accepting something that potentially makes the situation even worse than it was before,” said a faculty member, who didn’t want to be identified because he’s a relatively new hire, and is still on probation.
“I wasn’t surpised at all, but you never know what’s going to happen. It’s a matter of one side is trying to wait the other side out, until they’re desperate, and people can’t pay their mortgages. I could see people voting because they need to, and it’s good to see people are still able to go with what I think they feel is right.”
Around a dozen students joined their teachers on the picket lines, with signs that read “#asstoclass” and “let us learn”.
Their demonstration is part of a province-wide campaign, according to Fanshawe College representative Sarah Jolliffe.
“We’re just trying to show the government, the colleges, and the OPSEU union that we want to be back in class and that students matter,” she said.
Unlike a rally last week, which urged teachers to vote “yes” to the college employer council’s last offer, this campaign elected not to take sides.
“We are remaining neutral in the strike because we’re not taking sides at all because everyone has a reason for doing what they’re doing. Even us, our motivation is to get back to class.”