Part-time college support staff in Ontario to hold strike vote next week

College support staff picket outside George Brown College's St. James Campus in Toronto on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

The union representing about 10,000 part-time support workers at Ontario’s public colleges will hold a strike vote next week amid an ongoing strike by full-time support staff.

Noor Askandar, chair of the college part-time support bargaining team at the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, says part-time workers at the 24 colleges have been working under an expired collective agreement since January 2024.

Askandar says the part-time workers’ demands include paid sick days, cancelled shift pay for all workers and wage increases.

She accused the College Employer Council of dragging out negotiations and refusing to meet with the union.

The council says it has offered wage increases of two per cent per year, six per cent vacation pay and two paid sick days per year for permanent regular part-time employees, among other things.

It says the union’s demands include a six per cent annual wage increase, an additional two per cent in vacation pay and five paid sick days per year for all part-time employees – which “go beyond what colleges are prepared to accept in the current financial climate.”

Askandar says the pay increase offer doesn’t cover the time since the contract has expired.

“The latest employer’s proposal does not include retroactive pay for the months that the collective agreement has expired, which is effectively no wage increase at all for two years,” she says.

Askandar says the College Employer Council has refused 23 of 25 earlier mediation dates since engaging in conciliation in May, saying that their earliest availability is in December.

“The college part-time support staff bargaining team is ready to negotiate at any time, and ask that the CEC agree to earlier dates to settle a collective agreement that meets the needs of our part-time college support workers,” she said.

The council says mediation is the best way to resolve outstanding issues, and a strike is “unnecessary.”

Meanwhile, about 10,000 full-time college support staff have been on strike since Sept. 11.

OPSEU said job security remains a critical concern amid campus closures and layoffs in the college sector. It said workers currently have no protections against job elimination.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2025.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press