ONTARIO
Fanshawe College faculty to begin work-to-rule as contract talks stall

Teachers at Fanshawe College will begin a work-to-rule campaign next week over issues that include a contracting-out dispute, but a full-blown strike is "a last option," its union president says.

Author of the article:Heather Rivers
Publishing date:Dec 14, 2021 

Fanshawe College. (Derek Ruttan/The London Free Press)


Teachers at Fanshawe College will begin a work-to-rule campaign next week over issues that include a contracting-out dispute, but a full-blown strike is “a last option,” the president of the union representing faculty says.

The job action, set to start Saturday, will affect departmental and committee meetings, not teaching or grading, said Darryl Bedford, president of OPSEU Local 110, the faculty union that represents about 800 instructors.

“Those actions will not affect students,” he said.

In a online vote during the weekend, members provincewide voted 59 per cent in favour of giving the union a strike mandate, he said.

About 15,000 college faculty members, including professors, instructors and librarians, have been working under the terms of a collective agreement that expired Sept. 30.

“Students can be assured we are not looking at a strike. That is our last option,” Bedford said. “We are going to begin with work-to-rule.”

Work-to-rule means employees follow work rules and hours exactly, which can slow productivity and affect operations.

Substantial outstanding issues include subcontracting, transparency and workload, Bedford said.

The union also is disappointed about Fanshawe’s newly announced partnership with ILAC International College, a private college that will offer some of Fanshawe’s programs to international students in downtown Toronto in the spring of 2022.

Negotiations had come to a standstill, Bedford said, after Fanshawe “imposed terms and conditions at work” the union deems unacceptable.

“What they are doing is tearing up the collective agreement, saying, ‘This no longer applies, and here is a brand new document,’” he said.

“It’s unfortunate,” Bedford said. “We want to get back to the bargaining table.”

The College Employer Council, meanwhile, says it announced the changes last week before the strike vote took place.

It says the conditions taking effect Monday are meant to improve working conditions for employees, and include a wage increase.

The council says it has not left the bargaining table and has been clear about items to which it can’t agree.

The union says it has proposed continued negotiations or binding interest arbitration, as well as extending the existing collective agreement until at least Jan. 3.

­- with files from The Canadian Press