No negotiation between The CEC and Union bargaining team as OPSEU/SEFPO urged the

college faculties to discard the recent offer vote

A labour dispute intensified when OPSEU/SEFPO urged the college faculties to castoff the
forced offer vote to be conducted by the College Employer Council (CEC) on behalf of the
24 Ontario Public Colleges, when CEC asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to
hold a vote for college unionized academic employee members to poll on its most recent
offer.
According to CEC, The CEC and Union bargaining team has been negotiating since July
2021 and the CEC has most recently offered the deal that focuses on enhancements for
academic employees with all the terms and conditions the Colleges introduced on December
13, 2021 as well as three joint working groups on areas of shared interest between the CEC
and the Union.
We look forward to taking advantage of the opportunity to review university workloads, EDI,
and indigenous peoples to provide these collaborative working groups with the data they need
to make informed decisions. The management vote gives university staff the opportunity to
hear their views on what we have to offer, "said Graham Lloyd, CEO of CEC.
He further added “We want our academic staff to look at our suggestions and recognize that
we have properly addressed the areas of concern raised by the negotiation team, in order to
improve the situation in key areas.
Analysing the gaps in CEC's recent proposals, OPSEU / SEFPO President Warren Thomas
said, "Pushing through a forced agreement won’t help the university's labour relations and is
not certain to improve the quality of education. It is significant to attempt to reach a
negotiated solution, one that positions students first."
He added that instead of negotiations, the employer has the table and had imposed conditions
on teachers since December last year. The last bid subject to which they have put to a forced
offer vote has not changed since the bid on November 23, 2021.
“Rejecting this forced offer vote is the best path forward for faculty,” said Thomas. “It takes
away the CEC`s last tool, and it ensures that any final agreement will be better than this one,
which is exactly what has happened in previous rounds of bargaining, Thomas added.
Although CEC intreated OPSEU to keep their aptitude to put students' needs first, to avoid
unprecedented amounts of uncertainty in student’s lives and in their College education and
furthermore demanded the college faculty to continue working until the results of the
employer vote are derived.