Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ont., prepares for possible faculty strike

Classes at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ont., will be cancelled if its faculty members go on strike next week, but other services would continue to operate, the college said Wednesday.

About 150 of Confederation's faculty members are among more than 12,000 in Ontario that could walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. Monday if a deal is not reached between the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents the faculty, and the College Employer Council, which represents the 24 public Ontario colleges.

The faculty members' last contract expired at the end of September.

'Contingency plan'

"We have prepared a contingency plan," said Ken Adams, Confederation's vice-president of college services. "But if the strike should begin on Monday ... all academic delivery would cease at Confederation College."

Other services on-campus, such as the cafeteria, the wellness centre, the children and family centre and the bookstore would remain open, Adams said.

J.P. Hornick, OPSEU'sbargaining team chair, said no new talks had been scheduled as of Wednesday morning. The last round of talks broke down Tuesday; that was the motivation behind OPSEU setting its Monday deadline, union officials said.

"They tabled an offer (Tuesday) that actually moves us backwards on many of the issues," she said. "We set a strike deadline in order to pressure them, and we need them back at the table in order to negotiate this settlement."

Contracts an issue

Among the big issues arefaculty contracts, Hornick said. Currently, contract faculty need to re-apply for their jobs every semester; the union wants one-academic-year contracts to become the norm, to both allow the contract faculty members to spend more time focussing on teaching, and to give students stability.

Another issue is the number of contract faculty members; the union wants to keep the ratio of contract to full-time faculty kept at 50-50.

Finally, the union wants faculty and students to have more of a say in academic decisions.

"We believe it should be a balance between faculty, administrators and students," Hornick said. "In setting the academic visions for the colleges, it should be what happens in other colleges and universities, which is collegial governance, where we work together."

Adams said Confederation will be sending out communication bulletins to students and staff over the coming days to keep them informed of what's happening with the negotiations.

OPSEU represents more than 12,000 college faculty members in Ontario.