2024-2025 College Faculty Bargaining

Update: The CEC and OPSEU have agreed to enter binding arbitration. Labour action or a strike has been averted and there is no anticipated impact on the WInter 2025 semester. Learn more on the CEC and OPSEU websites. 

Ontario college professors, librarians and counsellors (faculty) are unionized as the College of Applied Art and Technology – Academic (CAAT-A) and are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU). Their work is negotiated through Collective Agreements, an employment contract between academic staff and Ontario colleges, who are represented by the College Employer Council (CEC). The current Collective Agreement is set to expire on September 30, 2024.

Since July 2024, OPSEU and the CEC have been engaging in meetings to negotiate a new Collective Agreement to replace the one set to expire in September 2024. During the negotiation process, both sides have been suggesting changes to their Collective Agreement, offering counter-proposals, and discussing how to strengthen Ontario's Colleges for all parties. Their discussions have been focused on workload, academic freedom, job security, equity, professional development, grievance processes, and much more.

As your student association, we are advocating to encourage both sides to continue the bargaining process to ensure there is no/minimal disruption to your student experience.

We also want to provide you with an explanation of what has already happened and what could happen in the near future. We have created this webpage to keep you updated on the negotiation process and answer common questions.

We will continue to post updates to this page and on social media as they are available. 

 

What has happened so far? 

Date	What Happened?
July 2, 2024	Notice to Bargain was served on July 2, 2024, by OPSEU team to the CEC.
July 15-16, 2024	The bargaining process between the CEC and OPSEU began. The CEC received Union proposals on workload, partial-load employees, and coordinators.
July 22-26, 2024	The bargaining process continued. Both sides exchanged proposals they felt would improve the Collective Agreement.
July 29-30, 2024	Further negotiations continued to try and amend the Collective Agreement to satisfy both sides.
September 9-17, 2024	Negotiations continued to try and amend the Collective Agreement to satisfy both sides.
September 18, 2024	OPSEU requests a Conciliation Officer and requests a strike mandate vote
September 23 - November 5, 2024	Negotiations continued to try and amend the Collective Agreement to satisfy both sides.
October 15-17, 2024	OPSEU members such as full-time and partial-load professors, instructors, librarians, and counsellors voted 79% in favour of labour action.
December 6, 2024 - January 7, 2025	The bargaining teams for the CEC and OPSEU will meet for non-binding mediation with experienced mediator, William Kaplan.
December 18, 2024	OPSEU received the No Board report that was requested from the Ministry of Labour.
January 3, 2025	OPSEU Faculty Bargaining Team issued 5-day notice that it intends to engage in labour action starting Thursday, January 9, 2025.
January 7, 2025	CEC and OPSEU have agreed to enter into binding arbitration with full-time and partial-load professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians. There is no anticipated impact to the Winter 2025 semester.

 

For more information, please visit the following Frequently Asked Questions document, OPSEU website, and CEC website.