Over the course of bargaining the CEC:- Refused to engage in good faith;
- Denied PT Support’s reasonable monetary and non-monetary demands for a living wage, paid sick days, protected leaves, and transparency in the hiring process;
- Filed for conciliation without meaningfully engaging in bargaining; and
- Requested a no board report after the bargaining team agreed to private mediation in May. The team is still waiting to hear back on potential earlier dates put forward by the bargaining team to meet again.
This is shameful behaviour.College Support Full-TimeMeanwhile, the College Support Full-Time Bargaining Team, who are also in bargaining, have recently called for a strike vote, and members will cast their ballots from August 13-15, 2025.In their round of bargaining, the CEC is:- Seeking concessions to make it easier to lay off support staff, strip unused vacation time, double requirements for on-call shifts, and minimize transparency in the layoff process;
- Overinflating the costs of their proposals (like they did to us!);
- Refusing to engage with the union’s proposals to increase family leave, domestic violence leave and create more job security; and
- are also refusing to engage with the critical bargaining demand for the CEC and colleges to join the union in demanding increased funding from the provincial government.
Let’s not forget that with full-time and partial-load faculty, the Colleges also attempted to make it easier to us lay off, to roll back our vacation periods, to remove teaching time for asynchronous teaching and to reduce protections for people who are laid off. It was only by working together and demonstrating our united power that we pushed them back.Our employer only has one playbook – deflect, defer, delay and do nothing, while squeezing as much profit out of the public colleges as possible. The truth is, we are all connected in this fight. These cuts will only continue if we do nothing and each and every one of us working at the colleges will be affected.Our only choice is to organize together. The silos that once existed in the College Sector – the ones that segregated college faculty and support staff – are gone. Thes silos only serve the employer. Our part-time faculty have finally won the right to their union: this last group of college workers who didn’t have protected working conditions can no longer be exploited. We are now wall to wall union, and we must begin to fight as one.The fight of support workers must be the fight of faculty, too. This fight is to Save Our Colleges.We stand with both divisions of our support colleagues in bargaining, and recognize that we all must build a larger campaign to engage our co-workers, students, communities and the public to demand that:- Layoffs STOP;
- Community Programs are restored; and
- Funding for Ontario’s post-secondary systems are brought up to the national average.
On August 14th, we’re having a Day of Action to Save our Colleges – when we’re aiming to bring together 1,000 college faculty and support staff to participate in a mass phone bank. We need to get organized and fight back against the reckless cuts hurting our members and our communities – and to do so, we need to bring everyone into this fight.Will you sign up to join 1,000 of your colleagues for the Save our Colleges Day of Action Phonebank on August 14th?Register for August 14th here.We know that sitting back as the Colleges and Doug Ford attempt to dismantle and privatize our college system isn’t an option.We are committed to figuring out our fight back, together, and will continue to be in touch.Solidarity,Your CAAT-A Divisional Executive (CAAT-A-Div Ex):Jeff Brown (he/him), Local 556Michelle Arbour (she/her), Local 125 – Vice-ChairRebecca Ward (she/her), Local 732Pearline Lung (she/her), Local 562 – ChairRobert Montgomery (he/him), Local 655 |
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