10,000 Ontario full-time college support staff remain on strike after talks break down over Colleges’ refusals on job security: “The plan to privatize and sell off our public college system is well underway.” 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                             Toronto, ON – Talks between the Ontario full-time college support staff bargaining team, represented by OPSEU/SEFPO, and the College Employer Council (CEC) broke down Monday after the employer refused progress on job security provisions for striking workers. Picket lines will stay up on college campuses across the province, with 10,000 workers remaining on strike.“We are walking the line to protect our work – after thousands upon thousands of layoffs across the system, there’s nothing else this fight can be about,” said Christine Kelsey, chair of the full-time support staff bargaining team. “None of the employer’s proposals save a single job. True job security looks like protections against the elimination of jobs, not extended notice or streamlining new pathways for layoffs.”Kelsey says that even after removing asks to stabilize the system (including a temporary moratorium on lay-offs, campus closures and mergers) it became clear that so-called “poison pills” were not blocking a path to a deal – the employer was.“Rather than get us back to work supporting students, college presidents’ directive has been to refuse job security language. They have united against workers in the middle of an accelerated agenda to dismantle public education.”“The morning we went into mediation, Georgian College announced the closure of its Orillia and Muskoka campuses,” added Kelsey. “It is clear that the plan to privatize and sell off our public college system is well underway. We’re fighting for a just transition that protects workers and the college communities we support.”The sale of these two campuses is estimated to save Georgian College $23.5 million over the next five years. The union says that far larger amounts of tax payer money have been transferred to corporate hands in recent years that could have kept these campuses open.The Skills Development Fund (SDF) has come under recent scrutiny after tens of millions in public funds awarded to for-profit businesses have been tied to friends of the Ford government. The SDF is under investigation by the Auditor General, with a report expected to drop this Wednesday,“The money is there to keep college campuses open in our communities,” said JP Hornick, President of OPSEU/SEFPO. “What’s missing is the political will to prioritize students over this government’s donors.”

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For more information, please contact:OPSEU/SEFPO Communication [email protected]