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9,000 teachers at Ontario's 24 community colleges will hold strike vote on Jan. 13.
Toronto (17 Dec. 2009) - Approximately 9,000 Ontario community college teachers will hold a strike vote Jan. 13 after a decision by college management to break off contract talks.
“For the second time in two weeks our bargaining team came forward with significant modifications to our position only to be met with management’s refusal to negotiate in good faith,” says Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union OPSEU/NUPGE). “That’s not bargaining.”
OPSEU represents faculty members at the province's 24 community colleges. Negotiators for the union last tabled modifications to their bargaining position on Nov. 30. College negotiators responded by insisting the union withdraw 69 of its requests.
“I’m deeply disappointed that management negotiators have squandered the last two days by their refusal to bargain," says Ted Montgomery, chair of the OPSEU bargaining team.
"Our team arrived at the table prepared to make progress but any hopes we had of reaching a tentative settlement were derailed almost from the start. Their refusal to bargain is forcing a needless disruption of the students’ studies.”
Faculty have maintained all along that in this round of bargaining the key issue is improving the quality of education by implementing the recommendations of an independent task force established after the last round of bargaining in 2006.
“Management has seriously distorted the cost of a settlement,” says Montgomery. “We have tabled an offer that is affordable and which should have been acceptable.”
The union announced the Jan. 13 strike vote after management walked away from the talks.
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The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE