Author of the article: Heather Rivers
Publishing date:Nov 30, 2021 •
Fanshawe College. (Derek Ruttan/The London Free Press)
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A new contracting-out deal between London’s Fanshawe College and a private Toronto career college has sparked concern within its faculty union, as it prepares for a strike vote next week.
As negotiations hit a standstill, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents about 800 instructors at Fanshawe as well as at other colleges across Ontario, will hold a provincewide strike vote Dec. 9, 10 and 11.
Friday, Fanshawe announced a partnership with ILAC International College, where it will offer some of Fanshawe’s programs to international students in downtown Toronto in the spring of 2022.
Fanshawe programs to be offered through ILAC include hospitality and tourism, hotel and resort management, addictions and mental health, and gerontology, said Wendy Curtis, who heads Fanshawe’s international student program.
“Fanshawe has a strategic plan where we have targeted a 50 per cent increase to international students over five years,” Curtis said. “Right now we are limited in our ability to grow. The way to achieve that target is by continued growth in London supplemented by growth in Toronto.
“ The college continues to contribute to (filling) the province’s labour market gaps , also the federal government’s plan in terms of supporting economic recovery through immigration.”
Money earned by Fanshawe from ILAC will “be reinvested back into our communities,” Curtis said.
But the freshly minted deal “feels like a betrayal of trust,” said Darryl Bedford, president of OPSEU Local 110, Fanshawe College’s faculty union.
“The issue for our members is they have worked under challenging circumstances during this pandemic to post all of this material online and they did so to help the students and community,” Bedford said. “Now you have a situation where Fanshawe is going to be licensing these programs to a private college so they can make a quick buck off of them.
“Instructors uploaded (the programs) believing it would be to the benefit of Fanshawe College, not so it could be turned around and used by a private college.”
The issue is a big deal within the context of bargaining because “provincially the union has language that materials cannot be transferred outside of a college without their permission,” Bedford said.
“This should not be about profit. It’s not what faculty members or donors wanted,” he said. “We don’t want a strike and it’s the last thing our system needs, but we are in collective bargaining and our team needs a (strike) mandate.”
Bedford said he hopes an arbitrator will step in “to decide what’s fair and reasonable.”
“The union is happy to go back to the bargaining table,” he said.
Instructors at the college last walked out in 2017, with the top issue being job security.
hrivers@postmedia.com
Article content
A new contracting-out deal between London’s Fanshawe College and a private Toronto career college has sparked concern within its faculty union, as it prepares for a strike vote next week.
As negotiations hit a standstill, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents about 800 instructors at Fanshawe as well as at other colleges across Ontario, will hold a provincewide strike vote Dec. 9, 10 and 11.
Friday, Fanshawe announced a partnership with ILAC International College, where it will offer some of Fanshawe’s programs to international students in downtown Toronto in the spring of 2022.
Fanshawe programs to be offered through ILAC include hospitality and tourism, hotel and resort management, addictions and mental health, and gerontology, said Wendy Curtis, who heads Fanshawe’s international student program.
“Fanshawe has a strategic plan where we have targeted a 50 per cent increase to international students over five years,” Curtis said. “Right now we are limited in our ability to grow. The way to achieve that target is by continued growth in London supplemented by growth in Toronto.
“ The college continues to contribute to (filling) the province’s labour market gaps , also the federal government’s plan in terms of supporting economic recovery through immigration.”
Money earned by Fanshawe from ILAC will “be reinvested back into our communities,” Curtis said.
But the freshly minted deal “feels like a betrayal of trust,” said Darryl Bedford, president of OPSEU Local 110, Fanshawe College’s faculty union.
“The issue for our members is they have worked under challenging circumstances during this pandemic to post all of this material online and they did so to help the students and community,” Bedford said. “Now you have a situation where Fanshawe is going to be licensing these programs to a private college so they can make a quick buck off of them.
“Instructors uploaded (the programs) believing it would be to the benefit of Fanshawe College, not so it could be turned around and used by a private college.”
The issue is a big deal within the context of bargaining because “provincially the union has language that materials cannot be transferred outside of a college without their permission,” Bedford said.
“This should not be about profit. It’s not what faculty members or donors wanted,” he said. “We don’t want a strike and it’s the last thing our system needs, but we are in collective bargaining and our team needs a (strike) mandate.”
Bedford said he hopes an arbitrator will step in “to decide what’s fair and reasonable.”
“The union is happy to go back to the bargaining table,” he said.
Instructors at the college last walked out in 2017, with the top issue being job security.
hrivers@postmedia.com
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