TORONTO - Contract talks between Ontario's community colleges and the union representing full-time faculty broke off Thursday, so the colleges said they will introduce a new contract of their own.
Colleges Ontario said it will introduce a new contract that gives full-time teachers an eight per cent wage hike over four years after talks with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union collapsed.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union said the colleges refused to negotiate in good faith.
"Seldom in my experience as a labour activist have I witnessed such arbitrary, misleading and, frankly, undemocratic behaviour," OPSEU president Warren Thomas said Thursday in a release.
"The union will have no alternative but to go to our membership and seek a strike mandate," Thomas said.
Rachael Donovan, chair of the colleges' bargaining team, said the eight per cent increase is in line with other recent public sector contract agreements.
The colleges are pleased they did not have to ask for any concessions from the faculty, Donovan said.
The governing body of Ontario's community colleges said the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act allows it to introduce new terms of employment once negotiations have broken down.
But Thomas called the move "union-busting at its worst."
"These acts have nothing to do with collective bargaining or the contract," he said.
