• Wages: $2.50 year 1, 6% year 2, 6% year 3

• Adding coverage for gender affirming care

• Increasing family care leave to 10 days

• Expanding the definition of family to include non-biological family members

• Increasing holiday entitlement

• Eliminating contracting out

• Increasing benefits

• Increasing STD (Sick leave) to 20 days

• Ensuring managers shall NOT perform support staff work

• Recognizing Indigenous Knowledge as considered comparable to education requirements

• Adding 2 days of Special Leave with Pay

• Increasing drug coverage to 100% 

• Strengthening job security language

Full Proposal with suggested language:

The Union proposal includes 45 items that can be utilized in bargaining. The proposal includes the suggested language or language adjustments as well as where they can be found in our current collective. 

You can read the full outline here.

We will Not Concede:

In the last meeting the CEC (College Employer Council) only brought their non-monetary items to the table. This proposal is currently limited to what was presented. They want to:

• Weaken our job security by expediting the lay-off process;

• Remove language mandating the employer to provide data regarding lay-offs on our campuses.

• Make it more difficult for us to use the grievance process when we feel we're not being paid what we're worth. 

• Limit vacation to 15 day maximum carry over. Anything above would be "use it or lose it" without payout. 

• Double the on-call time cap from 128 hours a month to 256 hours a month – encroaching on members’ personal time and ability to have a real day off. 

Current Employer Proposal:

The employer submitted a 12 page proposal of only their non-monetary items at the first meeting. 

You can read the full proposal with language changes here. 

Update 1: June 6

In the first bargaining update the important dates were listed, our goals as a union, and our bargaining focus was discussed. 

You can read the first bargaining update here in English and French

Update 2: June 20

The proposal was presented to the employer and our top demands were discussed. We are aiming for:

• No Concessions & Filling Vacancies Promptly

• Protecting Our Work from Managers

• Improved Benefits (Dental, Vision, Hearing, Prescription, Fertility Coverage & Gender Affirmation Care)

• Appendix D (Sick Leave, Vacation, Access to Benefits)

• Job Security & Protection from Contracting Out

• Domestic Violence Leave and Accommodation Support

• Union Orientation & Reporting

• Realistic Language Around Technological Change

• Better Pay (Shift Premiums, On-Call Rates, Pay Bands)

In addition, the employer's proposal (non-monetary) was discussed AND Our Fight Against the Funding Crisis Narrative.

You can read the second bargaining update here in English and French. 

Save Our Colleges!

You're more than a number.

Going to college in Ontario shouldn’t make you feel like just a number. And working at one shouldn’t end as just another tally in a growing list of layoffs.

Our colleges were built to equip students to enter the workforce and, in turn, build Ontario’s future.

Today, they’re cash-grabs – because the Ford government set them up like a house of cards and walked away from its responsibility to fund them.

And as of today, nearly all of Ontario’s 24 public colleges have announced some combination of devastating program closures, campus closures, and layoffs. 

It would take $1.4 billion of immediate bridge funding to stop the cuts and save programs and jobs, and  another $1.34 billion to bring per-student funding up to the national average.

That’s significantly less than $55 billion to dig a tunnel under the 401.

• Tuition fee revenue has tripled across the colleges since 2010, while provincial funding decreased by 28%. 

• Ontario ranks dead-last among the provinces for per-student funding: $8,411 short of the national average.

• Since Ford’s election in 2018, international enrolment has tripled, while domestic enrollment is down by 20%.

• The college system accumulated a record surplus of $1 billion in 2023-24 alone. If invested like annual surpluses in years prior, that’s going to capital assets (i.e. more buildings.)

• Tuition should go back into the classroom and support services, not towards new vanity projects or administrative bloat. 

You can learn more about the campaign and join here

Stay up-to-date:

You can keep informed during the bargaining cycle by:

• Following OPSEU-SEFPO FT College Support on Instagram

• Following OPSEU-SEFPO FT College Support on Facebook

• Joining the team

• Staying up to date on the OPSEU website

• Checking out  OPSEU-SEFPO FT College Support's Linktree