THUNDER BAY — Classroom instruction will continue as scheduled this week at Confederation College and Ontario's 23 other public colleges.
Negotiating teams for the schools and for 15,000 faculty members represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union agreed late Tuesday to enter into binding arbitration to settle their outstanding differences over a new collective agreement.
The move came after two days of non-binding mediation and two days before the union was set to withdraw services.
OPSEU served notice last Friday that job action could begin on Thursday of this week.
The union said it has managed to achieve "significant benefit gains" at the bargaining table, particularly for its members who are precariously employed because they are working contract-to-contract.
The College Employer Council said it had offered several "breakthrough" proposals, including enhanced benefits for all academic employees and improved access to benefits for partial-load employees.
Outstanding issues will be decided later this year by arbitrator William Kaplan.
Rebecca Ward, the president of OPSEU local 732 at Confederation College, said her members had been gearing up for a strike
"We had trailers en route. We had porta-potties being delivered today. We had our picket lines mobilized, ready to go...They definitely saw that the employer wasn't moving."
Ward said the situation changed over 24 hours.
"For the first time, we saw the employer start to move in terms of taking concessions off the table...dangerous concessions as far as we're concerned."
The improvements, she said, included an agreement that the colleges will contribute for the first time to benefits for partial-load faculty who work contract-to-contract.
She said these individuals comprise almost half the entire bargaining unit across Ontario.
Michelle Salo, president of Confederation College, was unavailable for comment Wednesday, as reporters were advised to contact the College Employer Council.
