Bargaining Bulletin 23
Exactly a year out from when we first gave Notice to Bargain, full-time and partial-load faculty have been awarded a three-year collective agreement, effective October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2027.
Despite bargaining in a tumultuous climate, we have achieved significant gains – including improvements for partial-load faculty, the most significant remedies on workload since the introduction of the workload formula, over-time provisions for librarians & counsellors, enhanced severance, mandating financial disclosure in employment stability processes, and more.
Full Award linked here.
Members are invited to a final Bargaining Update and Q&A session on Thursday, July 10th from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. EST on Zoom for a full walk-through:
Register here!
The general highlights of our new collective agreement are as follows:
| Wages | A 7.5% general wage increase as follows:
– 3% retroactive to October 1, 2024 – 2.5% effective October 1, 2025 – 2% effective October 2, 2026 Retroactive wages shall be paid by the colleges to current and former employees within ninety (90) days. Expanded discretionary steps – the College may grant up to seven (7) additional steps on hiring appointments provided the resultant rate does not place the individual above the maximum salary. |
| Partial-Load Faculty | Article 26.10 – Automatic registry for partial-load priority consideration for the following semester (effective 2026-2027 academic year).
Article 26.11 – Compensation for all mandatory meetings and training not associated with the academic deliverables of the partial load contract at $65.00 per hour.
Article 8.04 A, 8.04 B, 8.06 – Securing provisions for partial-load participation in union business, including book-offs, without loss of pay or registry rights.
Article 26.10 G – Extended leave rights. |
| Benefits | Article 26.06 – Bridging partial-load faculty onto benefits (Dental, Vision Care, Hearing Care, Critical Illness/Catastrophic Event Insurance, and Life Insurance) as per Article 19 – 25% employer paid. This opens the door for further gains.
Article 19 – Vision Care coverage up from $400 to $550 every two years, 75% employer paid for full-time faculty, 25% employer paid for partial-load faculty.
Eyewear coverage up from $400 to $550 every year, 75% employer paid for full-time faculty, 25% employer paid for partial-load faculty.
Hearing Care coverage up from $3,000 to $3,500 every three years, 75% employer paid for full-time faculty, 25% employer paid for partial-load faculty.
Benefits changes secured in the January 2025 Memorandum of Agreement. |
| Workload | Article 11.01 D3 – new preparation factor (additional time) for teaching for the first time in a new delivery mode (effective the 2026-2027 academic year).
Letter of Understanding re: College Bargaining Information Subcommittee (CBIS) – amended to continue data collection and evaluation regarding workload.
All below are effective January 1, 2026.
Article 11.01 F 1, F 2 – Increased allowance of 1 additional hour for routine-out-of class student assistance.
Article 11.01 C – Ensuring no teaching block will be scheduled for less than one hour. Teaching blocks may be extended by half hour increments. Total weekly teaching contact hours must equal a whole number.
Article 11.04 A2 – Overtime for counsellors and librarians where assigned to work overtime in excess of 35 hours (effective January 1, 2026).
Article 11.01 E 1 – Increase in essay or project evaluation time
Letter of Understanding re: Counsellor overtime – each college shall have a procedure to address overtime where it is not possible to obtain pre-approval when a student is in crisis. To be implemented on a college-by-college basis in consultation with the Local union by January 1, 2026. |
| Bargaining unit integrity | Article 14.03 A3 – Coordinator role assignments will prioritize qualified and interested bargaining unit members in affected program areas prior to contracting work outside the bargaining unit. |
| Job security | Retraining: Letter of Understanding re: using the Joint Employment Stability Reserve Fund (JESRF) for job retraining – the College shall advise bargaining unit employees who have received notice of layoff and/or who have been identified as a candidate for retraining of the availability of JESRF funds and invite affected bargaining unit employees to apply (effective July 2, 2025 through September 30, 2027).
Financial disclosure: Changes to Article 28 now mandate “that data which are relevant to employment stability shall be made available to both parties, including pertinent staffing and financial information.”
Enhanced severance: Letter of Understanding re: enhanced severance for full-time employees with two years or more of service, effective date of award (July 2, 2025). |
| Intellectual property | Letter of Understanding re: establishment of a subcommittee dedicated to discussing and making recommendations regarding intellectual property in the Ontario College system – to be established within 30 days following the signing of this agreement. |
These gains are significant, and a result of province-wide organizing that resulted in our strongest and highest-participation strike mandate vote to date.
While we celebrate these wins for our membership, we also need to acknowledge the work ahead of us. Where we haven’t seen substantial improvements is job security – which is no accident.
The employer’s arguments make clear that erosion of our bargaining unit is being used as a cover for greed, corruption, and system-wide mismanagement. The gains we’ve made this round need to be enshrined in the larger fight for a college system preserved for generations to come.
It is a fight we cannot win at the bargaining table alone.
The scale of layoffs
Today’s award also releases the actual numbers of realized and planned layoffs across the sector. With only nineteen colleges reporting, the numbers are incomplete – yet even so, still constitute one of the largest mass layoffs in Ontario’s history:
| IMPLEMENTED | College Faculty – Full-Time | 613 |
| UNION’S PROJECTION* – Fall 2025 | College Faculty – Full-Time | At least 300 |
| IMPLEMENTED | College Faculty – Partial-Load, Part-Time, Sessional |
3370 |
| ANTICIPATED – Fall 2025 | College Faculty – Partial-Load, Part-Time, Sessional |
679 |
| IMPLEMENTED | College Support – Full-Time | 1210 |
| ANTICIPATED – Fall 2025 | College Support – Full-Time | 281 |
| IMPLEMENTED | College Support – Part-Time | 1202 |
| ANTICIPATED – Fall 2025 | College Support – Part-Time | 110 |
| IMPLEMENTED | Full-Time & Part-Time Administrative Staff – non-OPSEU | 772 |
| ANTICIPATED – Fall 2025 | Full-Time & Part-Time Administrative Staff – non-OPSEU | 159 |
| Total faculty/support staff lay-offs | 7765 | |
| Total staff reduction across sector | 8696 |
These layoffs are exhausting by design: they keep us fighting separate battles. We can stop these cuts. By how much, we’ll answer together – but if we don’t come together in new ways, we can expect more of the same. 1.5 million Ontarians have already seen a campus closure in their community.
The Ford government and the CEC are pushing an agenda that ignores the community costs of college cuts. At a time when post-secondary education is being piloted towards privatization, and eroded through the rise of AI and outsourcing of our work, it is essential to be a union that is willing to fight. And we are.
We’re going to need to build huge momentum, the kind that builds campaigns and political stand-offs that have led to real wins throughout history.
If we turn out in record numbers, we can win. If we fail to, their agenda wins. You heard this message during our strike mandate vote, and it’s even more true now.
To pull off this fightback, we’re going to need leaders across the province. If we all do a little, it adds up to something far bigger.
So if you haven’t yet – sign up to plug into the fight!
In solidarity,
Your CAAT-A Bargaining Team:
Ravi Ramkissoonsingh, L242, Chair (he/him)
Michelle Arbour, L125, Acting Chair (she/her)
Chad Croteau, L110 (he/him)
Martin Lee, L415 (he/him)
Sean Lougheed, L657 (he/him)
Rebecca Ward, L732 (she/her)