Unions calls for accountability as Conestoga College workers lose their jobs

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Unions calls for accountability as Conestoga College workers lose their jobs

Layoffs at Conestoga College

Unions representing employees at Conestoga College are calling for accountability and justification after people working at the school lost their jobs.

CTV News Kitchener obtained an internal memo signed by Conestoga College’s President John Tibbits.

The memo claims the federal government’s decision to implement a cap on international student enrolment and other unnamed ‘changes’ have created a perception that Canada “is no longer a welcoming country for international education.”

“As a result, colleges in Ontario, including Conestoga, will not reach their international enrolment caps resulting in thousands fewer international students in the province than anticipated,” the memo said, in part.

The document confirmed several administrative positions at the college were eliminated.

“On Friday, March 28, the college also engaged with our support staff union to share a notice of layoff that outlines intent to reduce support staff positions,” the memo said.

Discussion between the union and the college are expected to take place over the upcoming weeks.

“Decisions were made after a great deal of consideration and after several other cost-cutting measures,” the message said.

Unions respond

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 237 represents 1,160 members including full-time and partial load faculty, counsellors and librarians.

As on Tuesday afternoon, the union was uncertain how many of their members could be impacted.

“I won’t see it until I get the numbers at the end of May for the spring/summer semester, but I’m guessing it could be as high as 30 per cent or greater,” Leopold Koff, president of OPSEU Local 237, told CTV News in an interview.

Koff worried members would either receive no contract at all, or they would be reduced to two or three hours part-time.

“It’s technically not a layoff, it’s a reduction,” Koff said. “But there’s partial load faculty that have been on contract at Conestoga even longer than John Tibbits has been there. They are now being dumped into the dumpster by the college.”

The news of the staffing reductions come after Ontario’s sunshine list was released last week. It listed Tibbits as the top earning public sector employee in the Waterloo Region. His salary came in at $636,106.70 before taxable benefits.

“And now a 29 per cent increase in salary while the support staff had to negotiate and fight over the past years for nickels and dimes – and we’ll be going to enter the same process again – is disheartening and was very disrespectful,” Vikki Poirier, president of OPSEU Local 238, said.

OPSEU Local 238 represents 840 full-time, 90 regular part-time and thousands of part-time contract support staff.

“They made the decision to lay off the people. We are going to make sure that there is accountability, that there is justification and we are going to decrease the impact on our membership as much as humanly possible,” she said.

Conestoga College reported a surplus of nearly $252 million in 2024.

“The costs and the budgets - they’re not sharing any of that. They’re just doing things with no transparency, no collaboration, no discussion, no explanation. How do you get buy-in from people if you don’t disclose what’s really happening?” Koff asked.