Voting, Next Steps, and Positive Thoughts

Just a friendly reminder that the CEC-requested forced offer vote starts tomorrow, February 15 at 9am, and runs through February 17 at 3pm.  Results will be shared by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) on February 18th.

The faculty team is encouraging faculty to REJECT the CEC’s offer as it does not address faculty’s key demands on workload, online teaching, contracting out, consent for use of faculty materials, equity, and processes around Indigenization, decolonization, and Truth & Reconciliation.  While accepting the CEC offer may result in an immediate end to this round of negotiations, the only certainty it will provide is that our workloads will continue to increase with online and hy-flex learning, our work will continue to be outsourced, precarity will continue to increase, and there will be no incentive to make concrete improvements around equity.

Voting to reject the CEC’s offer not only protects our work now, but also demonstrates faculty’s repudiation of the CEC’s strategy of circumventing negotiations by imposing terms and conditions.  It means continuing to bargain for improvements to our system, both for ourselves and our students.

What happens next

A strong REJECT vote sends a clear message to the CEC directly from faculty that their offer is not good enough, and that they must either bargain or go to binding interest arbitration on outstanding faculty issues.  If the CEC refuses, we will continue building pressure through escalating work-to-rule actions. 

How to vote

If you are a partial-load or full-time faculty member, you are eligible to vote and should receive your PIN and instructions from the OLRB today (Monday).  As a reminder, partial-load faculty who teach at more than one college should only vote once.

If you do not receive your voting information, please check out the faculty FAQ, or contact the OLRB directly at their helpline:

OLRB Help Desk Telephone:
French – (416) 434-6748
English – (416) 326-7432

OLRB Help Desk Hours of Operation:
February 15 (9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.), February 16 (1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and February 17 (11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.). All times listed are Eastern Time.

A dose of positivity: faculty and student voices

Faculty and students have created a series of videos explaining, in their own words, why faculty love what we do and the impact we have on our students.  These have been rolled out provincewide in a broad public awareness campaign as well.

In solidarity, 
JP, Jonathan, Katie, Michelle, Ravi, Rebecca, Shawn