Why was the Final Offer rejected?

The College Employer Council tabled a “final offer” on Tuesday and then walked away from further bargaining. This is not negotiation, but rather dictating terms of settlement. Still, any offer should be considered, and the bargaining team did consider it, but quickly determined it was not acceptable. The team has provided a point by point summary of why this is a bad offer in Negotiations Bulletin #12 and Negotiations Bulletin #13.

You can also read the full offer for yourself at: https://thecouncil.on.ca/download/12677

The union’s response is quite thorough, but I suggest you look carefully at the changes the council has proposed to Article 2. Since the moratorium on Article 2 grievances has expired, they are now proposing new language in that article that renders it all but pointless. Specifically, they are proposing to completely exempt Part-Time hires from the Article.

As a very simple example of the implications of this, consider the following: In the past, when a full-time faculty retired, the union could grieve that position if it was not filled with another full-time hire. The new language would allow the colleges to simply replace a full-time position that had say, 15 contact hours, with three part-time hires at 5 hours each. The union would not be able to do a thing about it under the proposed modifications to Article 2. Given the past trends in the growing ratio of contract to full-time faculty, how long would it take for contract faculty to make up over 90% of the teaching at our Colleges?

The Council’s intentions are very transparent. They are targeting Article 2, and trying very hard to get past that language of “preference for Full-Time faculty”. We cannot allow this trend to continue unchecked and we cannot accept any offer that will undermine the stability of the full-time faculty complement.

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Why was the Final Offer rejected?

The College Employer Council tabled a “final offer” on Tuesday and then walked away from further bargaining. This is not negotiation, but rather dictating terms of settlement. Still, any offer should be considered, and the bargaining team did consider it, but quickly determined it was not acceptable. The team has provided a point by point summary of why this is a bad offer in Negotiations Bulletin #12 and Negotiations Bulletin #13.

You can also read the full offer for yourself at: https://thecouncil.on.ca/download/12677

The union’s response is quite thorough, but I suggest you look carefully at the changes the council has proposed to Article 2. Since the moratorium on Article 2 grievances has expired, they are now proposing new language in that article that renders it all but pointless. Specifically, they are proposing to completely exempt Part-Time hires from the Article.

As a very simple example of the implications of this, consider the following: In the past, when a full-time faculty retired, the union could grieve that position if it was not filled with another full-time hire. The new language would allow the colleges to simply replace a full-time position that had say, 15 contact hours, with three part-time hires at 5 hours each. The union would not be able to do a thing about it under the proposed modifications to Article 2. Given the past trends in the growing ratio of contract to full-time faculty, how long would it take for contract faculty to make up over 90% of the teaching at our Colleges?

The Council’s intentions are very transparent. They are targeting Article 2, and trying very hard to get past that language of “preference for Full-Time faculty”. We cannot allow this trend to continue unchecked and we cannot accept any offer that will undermine the stability of the full-time faculty complement.

Leave a Reply