Union representing faculty at Ontario’s 24 colleges in strike position as of March 18

With approximately 14,000 full-time faculty members at Ontario’s 24 public colleges on track to go on strike as soon as 12:01 a.m. on Friday, students say they’re feeling nervous about the approaching end of the academic year.

“We’re already stressed. It’s our thesis films, we have our thesis projects, many students are all in the same boat and we’re all being pushed to the brink,” Carson Flemons, a fourth-year film and television student at Sheridan College in Oakville on track to graduate in April, said on Tuesday after contacting CityNews.

“I was looking at hopefully going right into the work. I have a couple of opportunities already offered up to me but if it ends up being extended, I might have to delay those opportunities or not accept the jobs which isn’t ideal for me.”

Negotiations on a contract began in 2021 and faculty members have been without a contract for several months. More recently, faculty members have been carrying out an administrative work-to-rule campaign.

Student leaders CityNews spoke with said they’ve been hearing from peers on Monday and Tuesday, especially when it comes to potential lost job opportunities, extra rent costs and living expenses. There was also heightened concerns for international students who might be subject to tight budgets and firm visa dates.

Shay Hamilton, the chair of the board at Ignite — the association that represents Humber College students, said many of expressed a range of emotions.

“Frustration, anger, sadness … We cannot be a part of the discussion. If you want to strike, you should be also talking to the people who actually fund this organization and give us a seat so you can hear our opinions,” she told CityNews.

“We have to avoid a strike, we must. Students must finish their semester with no further disruptions.”

Taranjeet Singh, the president of the Centennial College Student Association Inc., echoed the other concerns raised.

“The biggest stressor is the unknowns with the situation,” he told CityNews.

“Just imagine the last years how they have been. So many unknowns, stressful, no in-person learning or minimal in-person learning, there’s so much going on in the world.

“Get back to the table … I know you both have different asks at this point, but students are the ones who are suffering.”

RELATED: Arbitrator sets new contract for Ontario college faculty following strike

As for the issues involved from the union’s perspective, the decades-old formula calculating preparation time, workload and job protections are high on the list.

“We are not arguing over money or wages and benefits. There’s no disagreement over that. If we were in this for money, we’re not. What we’re looking for are improvements to the quality of education,” JP Hornick, chair of the OPSEU bargaining team representing college faculty members, told CityNews on Tuesday.

She noted potential strike action comes after a months-long work-to-rule campaign.

A point of contention between the union and the College Employer Council, the body negotiating on behalf of Ontario’s 24 public colleges, is how a deal can be settled given the differences identified over the past several months.

Hornick said the union has been pushing to send all of the issues to binding arbitration without luck.

“No tricks, no hiding anything, send it to an expert third-party arbitrator. All they have to do is agree. If they say yes, there’s no strike,” she said.

Graham Lloyd, the CEO of the College Employer Council, said the organization wanted a two-year extension of the existing contract with one-per-cent annual salary increases and agreed to a review of the workload formula.

“We wanted to provide certainty for the students. College management has always wanted to provide some certainty because of these economic times,” he said.

Lloyd said many of the asks from the union are hard to meet, calling for an arbitration process where someone would pick one side’s proposal over the other. Mediation failed to reach an agreement.

Like Hornick, he encouraged meeting again. Lloyd also tried to dispel concern there could be a lockout.

“Management will never lock them out. We need to get these students through. We need to give them some security,” he said.

CityNews contacted Ontario Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop’s office to ask what the province is doing and if legislation might be used to end a potential strike.

A spokesperson didn’t answer the question about legislation potentially being used in the future should a strike happen, but they encouraged both sides to reach a deal to keep students in class.

Meanwhile, Flemons shared a message for all those involved in negotiating the new contract.

“Students shouldn’t be a bargaining chip. We should be the biggest factor. We’re the ones paying for school or paying to be here … Students and our education should be the focus,” he said, echoing calls from others for the parties to return to bargaining and adding a recent return to in-person learning has been beneficial.

“Having that actual teacher-to-student interaction is a huge thing and not having that anymore has affected a lot of us mentally and I think that’s one thing that really should be concerned (about) in a situation like this.”