OPSEU asks college management to resume contract talks
Posted September 9, 2011 9:49 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The union representing striking college support staff has asked management to come back to the bargaining table and resume contract talks.
“Today I’m inviting management to pick up the phone and call me,” Rod Bemister, chair of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union’s (OPSEU) bargaining team, said during a rally at George Brown College on Thursday.
“All they need to say is that they’re prepared to resume talks.”
Support staff walked off the job nine days ago, when the two sides failed to reach an agreement on Aug. 31.
Picket lines are up at the province’s 24 community colleges. About 8,000 members of OPSEU — including administrators, IT staff, librarians and cleaners — have walked off the job.
The union claims it is trying to stop part-time positions from overtaking full-time hires and the colleges say wages have been the main stumbling block in talks. The College Employer Council says it has offered a 4.8-per-cent wage increase over three years.
College support staff hasn’t taken job action since 1979.
Don Sinclair, with the management bargaining team, said the colleges wouldn’t be willing to return to bargaining until the union got “the big picture.”
“Going back to the table to talk about the union’s unaffordable positions will not get us a deal,” said Sinclair.
With files from The Canadian Press
