After hours of discussions last night, the union representing college faculty and the College Employer Council agreed to binding interest arbitration. Following a week of tension and uncertainty, the union has officially suspended a strike action that was scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. today.

“We have said all along that binding interest arbitration is not a win for the colleges; it’s not a win for faculty—it’s a win for students,” Jeff Brown, acting chief steward and vice-president of OPSEU Local 556, wrote to the Dialog.

Binding interest arbitration, a process which will have arbitrator William Kaplan choose proposals from either party’s settlement offers to create a mutually beneficial collective agreement, was an option presented to college employers by the union in as early as November.

Previously, the CEC had continuously rejected this in favour of final offer selection (FOS), which would have had an arbitrator choose one side’s offer in its entirety.

“There is absolutely no reason for it to have taken this long,” Brown noted. “The College presidents, who direct the CEC, need to be held accountable and made to answer for this.”

After months of work-to-rule actions to put pressure on the CEC and escalating to a strike deadline that was issued on Monday, the two could not seem to agree nor compromise up until this moment.

“After all that students, faculty and the college community have been through over the past two years, we felt it was essential that we put our differences aside and conclude these negotiations without a strike,” Graham Lloyd, CEO of the CEC wrote in a recent statement.

 

As expected, the road to reaching such an agreement was not without its hiccups.

The CEC responded to OPSEU-O after they had delivered a letter threatening for a walk-out alleging that the Treasury Board Secretariat, which enforces compensation legislation such as Bill 124, deemed union workload demands to be illegal. College management called on the union to return to bargaining and withdraw strike threats as a result.

From the union’s perspective, this announcement served no purpose, nor was it a formal, legal opinion. “This assessment was based solely on information provided by the CEC; the assessment actually recommends that the CEC seek its own legal advice,” Brown wrote.

The union is still the only party to hold an official legal opinion on this matter, which has stated that none of the terms proposed by the bargaining team violate the Bill.

 

Additionally, the announcement of a strike deadline caused quite a stir amongst college students.

“It’s understandable that students were upset, and many people didn’t have all the information about why this was happening,” Brown stated. The union attempted to curb this by supplying students with information and an awareness of the current situation, but complaints surfaced nonetheless.

Some individuals directed their anger towards the union and others towards the CEC, or both. Today’s news has similarly received a plethora of mixed responses.

Certain students who were anxiously awaiting a decision were frustrated by the silence they were met with throughout the week. “You seriously couldn’t have done this any sooner? You haaaad to pick just before exams and stress out every student in the province? I won’t hold my breath for another strike threat next semester,” said one responder on Twitter.

Others expressed gratitude for CAAT-A’s continued efforts: “Congratulations to the bargaining team. Good things happen when members show solidarity,” another responder chimed in under the same thread.

A third responder said, befittingly: “It’s been a roller coaster of emotions.”

 

It’s uncertain at this time when arbitration will begin or how long it should take, but Brown is confident that a mutually beneficial agreement will be reached. “You never know what will happen in arbitration, but arbitrator Kaplan is a fair and truly neutral third-party,” he wrote.

Kaplan acted as the arbitrator for the collective agreement during the 2017 strike, which was well-received by both sides.

“I hope students realize that faculty tried to get to this point months ago, but at least we finally got here.”