Support staff at Ontario’s publicly funded colleges are on strike, as they failed to reach a new contract agreement before the deadline of midnight.
The 10,000 full-time college support staff, represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, are seeking better wages, benefits, and job security, and were in a legal strike position as of 12:01 a.m.
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The union, which also represents faculty at Ontario colleges, states that nearly 10,000 college faculty and staff have either been laid off or are projected to lose their jobs amid hundreds of program cancellations and suspensions since last year.
Colleges in Ontario had been increasingly relying on tuition from international students for several years due to low levels of provincial government funding and a years-long tuition freeze, and have been struggling since the federal government enacted a cap on international students.
The College Employer Council has stated that the union’s demands would expose colleges to more than $900 million in additional costs, although the union disputes this figure.
The employer council says it has offered monetary and benefit increases, enhanced severance packages, better vacation carry-over rights and more.