THUNDER BAY - Students at Confederation College will remain in the classroom after scheduled strike action to commence at midnight was called off.
The College Employer Council and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union announced late last night that an agreement had been reached.
“The parties have reached an agreement to enter binding interest arbitration and the strike that was scheduled to commence at 12:01 a.m. on March 18, 2022, is called off,” a joint statement issued by both parties reads. “This also concludes all work-to-rule strike activities.”
College professors, instructors, librarians and counsellors have been working to rule since December.
OPSEU had set the Friday strike deadline earlier in the week, saying 16,000 members across the province would walk off the job unless the College Employer Council agreed to voluntary binding interest arbitration.
The strike deadline followed months of failed negotiations for a new collective agreement, most recently with the union rejecting an offer from the College Employer Council in February 2022 by a vote of 62 per cent among members.
OPSEU was calling for binging interest arbitration to allow both parties to submit proposals to a neutral arbitrator, who in effect chooses a compromise from the two submissions.
Student groups expressed concern about a disruption to the academic year if strike action was taken having already endured numerous hurdles throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Everyone was worried about the outcome of this because it is absolutely not the right time to go into a strike for the students and all the stakeholders after coming through the pandemic," said SUCCI president Ronnie Kasana.
Kasana added that with the work to rule ending as well, classes will be running in full and students will receive the quality education they deserve.
"Students are so grateful that their classes will not be disrupted by a labour dispute and can continue to their graduation without and disruption," he said.
The last strike action at Confederation College took place in 2017 and last five weeks before the provincial government passed back to work legislation.
