After more than a month on the picket line, about 10,000 support workers at Ontario’s 24 public universities have reached a tentative agreement with their employer, the union that represents them said Wednesday.
University support workers, which include library technicians, registration clerks and technology support staff, have been on strike since 9/11, citing job security and university funding as primary concerns.
They are now scheduled to return to work on Thursday and will soon review the details of the new agreement and vote on whether to ratify it, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) said in a news release.
Christine Kelsey, chairwoman of the union’s negotiating team, did not provide details about the agreement, but said in the statement that the strike was necessary “to fight back amid a plan to privatize public education, as well as the loss of 10,000 jobs and more than 650 program cuts systemwide.”
“After months of intense negotiations with an incredibly difficult employer, the progress made on this agreement would not have been possible without members standing strong these past few weeks,” Kelsey said.
In a statement, the College Employers Council (CEC) said a private mediation session over the weekend “broke a negotiating impasse.”
The provisional agreement must be ratified before November 4, but in the meantime the picketing will end, the employer said.
“We are grateful they have returned to work,” CCA chief executive Graham Lloyd said in the statement. “Support staff play an important role at our universities, supporting operations and contributing to student success.”
One of Ontario’s largest public sector unions is calling on the provincial government to recognize recently released data on universities. The new numbers highlight more than 10,000 job losses and more than 600 program cuts over the past year.
Negotiations between OPSEU and the CEC, which represents publicly funded universities in the province, began in June. After the previous contract expired in September, more than 10,000 workers went on strike, prompted by job and scheduling cuts the union he told CBC in August would cause the loss of 10,000 jobs.
Citing those mass layoffs, the union had said it was fighting for job security and adequate funding for public universities.
The CEC had previously said The union’s demands — which included prohibiting college closures, campus mergers, and any layoffs or reductions in force during the contract period — were fiscally impossible at a time when college enrollment and revenue have declined by as much as 50 percent.
In Wednesday’s statement, the union accused Premier Doug Ford’s government, which was not a direct party to the negotiations, of underfunding Ontario’s public university system.
“We have won more than a contract,” Kelsey said in the statement. “After being in our communities, day after day, the public now understands that our university system is being deliberately defunded as part of underwriting Ford’s devastating privatization agenda.”
