Starts 12:01am, December 18, 2021
(if no settlement or no agreement on extension of existing terms and conditions before then)
Focus
- The imposition of terms and conditions prevents the possibility of good labour relations, eliminates faculty consent, and is itself a form of labour disruption.
- It is a choice by the colleges and the CEC to abandon negotiations and to force faculty to work only under the conditions the colleges and CEC want.
- All actions below specifically target administrators, not students.
Continue to…
- Focus on needs of students and supporting their learning
- Maintain contact with students and keep them informed
- Maintain contact with Local and attend union activities and meetings
- Follow explicit written direction from your manager (and talk to your Local about how to file a grievance if necessary).
Actions
All faculty Professors, Instructors, Counsellors, Librarians, FT and PL (starting on December 18)
- Many Colleges are in the process of changing their instructional delivery plans in January, as a result of COVID. If your college has made changes to your workload or your instructional delivery mode since you received your SWF:
a. Request a meeting with your supervisor regarding any changes to workload and or delivery modes since you received your Winter SWF and ask for additional attributed hours for preparation, to reflect the additional time that you will need to spend preparing as a result of these changes.
b. At that meeting, request a written response from your supervisor within 48 hours.
c. Follow that meeting up with an e-mailed summary of your meeting and repeat the request for written reply
d. If you receive no reply in 48 hours (or if you receive an unsatisfactory reply at any time, including verbally), immediately refer your workload to the Workload Monitoring Group. Contact your union Local for any questions.
- Start recording all of the time you spend on the different parts of your work, such as evaluation, preparation, meetings, student email, etc. We recommend using Toggl, a free and easy to use app that you can use from your computer or phone.
- Change the signature line on your college and personal email to read: “The College Employer Council and college management have chosen to impose terms and conditions of work on college faculty, rather than agreeing to extend existing terms while the faculty and employer bargaining teams negotiate a Collective Agreement. College faculty have begun a work-to-rule campaign, in protest. For more information, click here [insert collegefaculty.org or local website link].”
- Share the Following Sample Message on your LMS and social media:
The College Employer Council and college management have chosen to impose terms and conditions of work on college faculty, rather than agreeing to extend existing terms while the faculty and employer bargaining teams negotiate a Collective Agreement. College faculty have begun a work-to-rule campaign in protest. For more information, click here [insert collegefaculty.org or local website link].
College faculty are fighting for the following, for students and the college system. The Colleges are refusing:
- More time for student evaluation
- Preparation time for online learning
- Partial-load job security and seniority improvements
- No contracting out of counsellor and other faculty work
- Faculty consent prior to the sale or reuse of faculty course materials
- Jointly-led committees and round tables able to implement changes around workload, equity, and Indigenization, decolonization, and Truth and Reconciliation
If you would like to send a letter expressing your concerns to the President of the College and the CEO of the College Employer Council, there is a link to a sample letter at collegefaculty.org.
- Sign the click-to-email letter at collegefaculty.org and distribute it to students via non-college email. Share it with friends, family, colleagues, other organizations you belong to, and ask for their support.
- Download and use the “Bargaining for Better” Zoom background for all online meetings with college administrators and students.
- Upload as little as possible for the upcoming semester on college LMS platforms.
- Do no work over the scheduled holiday period.
- For Partial-Load faculty, we recommend that you avoid doing any work during any day when you are not under contract.
Other Bargaining Updates
Arbitrator awards improvements far beyond those offered by Employer in negotiations
Click here to download a PDF of the bulletin The award affects areas including:• Equity;• Indigenization;• Partial-load job security;and acknowledges workload associated with multi-modal courses. This is an historic moment in CAAT-A’s continued fight for equity, job...
Ontario College Faculty Achieve Historic Gains in new Collective Agreement
Toronto – Fifteen months after the commencement of a round of bargaining that included the largest work-to-rule faculty job action in the history of Canadian Colleges and Universities, labour negotiations between OPSEU/SEFPO’s college faculty division and the College...
College faculty arbitration update
OPSEU/SEFPO CAAT Academic and the CEC participated in a mediation/arbitration September 7-9, 2022. Following the mediation part of the proceeding, an arbitration occurred on September 9, 2022. The arbitrator’s award will form the new collective agreement and it is...
College faculty bargaining team statement
The college faculty bargaining team has issued the following statement: Arbitrator William Kaplan has imposed a media blackout on the upcoming voluntary mediation-interest arbitration between the colleges’ and college faculty bargaining teams. There will be no further...
Joint statement by OPSEU/SEFPO and the College Employer Council
OPSEU/SEFPO’s college faculty bargaining team and the College Employer Council have issued the following statement: The parties have reached an agreement to enter binding interest arbitration and the strike that was scheduled to commence at 12:01 am on March 18, 2022,...
College faculty to resume talks with employer
Toronto – With some 16,000 college faculty set to go on strike at 12:01 Friday morning, the College Employer Council (CEC) and the faculty bargaining team have agreed to meet Thursday. “We were encouraged that the CEC replied to our letter and have agreed to meet...
College faculty set strike deadline
TORONTO – Some 16,000 faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges say they will go on strike at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, March 18 if the College Employer Council (CEC) does not agree to voluntary binding interest arbitration. The faculty bargaining team sent an open letter...
Work to Rule: Phase 3
Started 12:01am, March 02, 2022 Focus Work-to-rule must impact the functioning of the colleges in order to work as a bargaining strategy to bring the Council back to the table to discuss faculty’s needs. The colleges and CEC have chosen to abandon negotiations and to...
College faculty reject contract, call on employer to negotiate or arbitrate
TORONTO – Ontario college faculty have rejected a contract offer from their employer, and OPSEU/SEFPO President Warren (Smokey) Thomas hopes the result will trigger a return to the bargaining table. “I am convinced a negotiated settlement is there and within reach,”...
Legal Brief Supports Faculty Proposals
Throughout this round of bargaining, the College Employer Council (CEC) has repeatedly refused to negotiate significant issues regarding workload, staffing, or fairness for partial-load faculty. They have justified their obstinacy by claiming that changes to these...
Information for OPSEU/SEFPO members in the CAAT-Academic Division about the February 15-17 forced-offer vote
A forced-offer vote will be held in February for college faculty members represented by OPSEU/SEFPO starting February 15. The vote was scheduled after the College Employer Council (CEC) asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) last week to schedule the online...
Five reasons to REJECT the CEC’s forced offer
Click here for a printable PDF version The College Employer Council’s forced offer fails. It’s a terrible contract that fails faculty, fails students and threatens to harm the entire college system. All faculty should vote to reject the colleges’ offer, because: (x)...