Niagara College is open and it is business as usual for all college programs and operations.
The colleges and the union negotiated for over seven months, with the colleges providing their final offer to the faculty union in late January. The College’s asked faculty to vote on accepting or rejecting the final offer on Feb 10.
Unofficial results from the Feb 10th vote indicate that a 51.25 per cent majority of college faculty accepted the colleges’ final offer. We understand that the Ontario Labour Relations Board will be completing an official count over the next 2 weeks, at which time we will have the final result. The unofficial results are still very close, with a number of segregated and mail-in ballots to be counted over the coming days. In the meantime, it is business as usual at Niagara College.
If the OLRB determines that the faculty vote is in acceptance of the final offer, faculty will have a new contract and there will be no disruption to the academic term. If the OLRB determines the faculty vote rejected the final offer, it is up to the faculty union to determine if they will strike or not. The union can call a strike by providing five days’ notice. You will be notified if an official strike announcement is made.
OPSEU represents faculty members, counsellors and librarians within the Ontario college system.
It is expected that in the event of a strike the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities would make any decision regarding student tuition fee refunds. This decision would not be made until after any strike had ended.
In the event of an interruption of classes, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities will continue to provide provincial income and personal supports to Employment Ontario program participants in accordance with their agreements with the Ministry. Updates from the Province of Ontario may be found at www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/tcu/.
If the faculty union ultimately decides to strike, the college will do everything we can to complete the academic year, which is in the best interest of our students. The college will likely use semester completion plans to help students complete their studies and not lose the semester. The nature of these plans would depend on the length of any strike.
The two main issues are salary and workload. The College’s final offer included improvements in salary, benefits, and working conditions. There are no concessions or takeaways. The offer provided a 5.9% cent increase to salary over three years which increases the maximum salary to $102,186 per year. There are also improvements to workload that will benefit both faculty and students. We believe that given the province's economic circumstances, this is a fair and reasonable offer.
Students would be informed by:
