Colleges avert strike by agreeing to binding arbitration

College strike averted Students will head into their winter semester after a strike was averted by the faculty union.

Ontario's 24 public colleges are packing their picket-line parkas away this year.

After more than six months of negotiations, the OPSEU bargaining unit representing over 15,000 college faculty across Ontario signed a Memorandum of Agreement Wednesday.

Georgian College's OPSEU union representative Anita Arvast said she received word of the memorandum late Tuesday evening.

"Now it will go to binding arbitration," Arvast said Wednesday morning.

"I'm absolutely exhausted and so relieved."

After spending the week readying trailers for the picket lines, organizing schedules for the 800 members across all of Georgian's campuses, she’s grateful to see a resolution.

The memorandum offers significant benefit gains, especially for part-time members who encompass 75 per cent of the workforce, she said.

While the two sides remain at an impasse over other issues, the two sides will send now all outstanding items to mediation-arbitration.