THUNDER BAY -- As 150 professors at Confederation College prepare to vote on a contract offer starting Tuesday, the president of the college says the issue of academic freedom is the outstanding issue that still needs to be resolved.
In an Open Letter to college faculty issued Monday, Jim Madder said other major issues have been resolved, including "issues around precarious work and staff complement, which will be referred to a provincial task force."
However, the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union local which represents Confederation's faculty disagrees with Madder's contention.
Rebecca Ward said the offer which the province's colleges have made to their teachers "actually further increases precarious work," which is the practice of hiring faculty on short-term contracts.
In an interview, Ward described the offer as poor in other respects as well.
"It is not giving faculty any overtime when they come back to work. They are going to have to compress a semester into a few short weeks... And they are also penalizing us twice, and our return-to-work pay will be reduced by 20.8 per cent," she said.
Ward said OPSEU's leadership expects the offer to be turned down during the three days of voting this week, noting that rejection is "strongly recommended by our bargaining team who have acted with integrity throughout the bargaining process."
In contrast, she alleged, the colleges have not bargained in good faith.
In his letter, Madder said that OPSEU has refused to accept the colleges' proposed solution for the issue of academic freedom.
The colleges, he said, agreed to enshrine academic freedom in the collective agreement.
According to Madder, the union has framed the issue as being between faculty and college management, whereas management believes "all stakeholders" should continue to participate in the academic decision-making process.
"Faculty have the central voice in academic decision making but not the only voice...Faculty are consulted when it comes to developing, changing and discontinuing programs...However, along with responding to the current and future needs of employers, our programs must remain fully compliant with provincial program standards, external accrediting and regulatory agencies, and professional associations."
Madder said working collaboratively to develop programs "is the best way to keep our colleges relevant."
He appealed to Confederation's faculty to review the entire offer and come to their own conclusions.
Ward said if the offer is rejected, the dispute may go to arbitration.
"Our feeling is...(that) would still be better than what's in front of us."
