COLLEGES REJECT ARBITRATION, PLACE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC YEAR IN JEOPARDY
WELLAND – In a stunning decision that jeopardizes the academic future for 9,300 Niagara College students, The College Compensation and Appointments Council this morning publicly rejected the Faculty proposal to save the students’ academic year by sending all outstanding issues to binding arbitration.
“The Council didn’t even wait 24 hours before using a media release to flatly reject the offer,” Niagara College Faculty President Sherri Rosen said. “They didn’t even consult with their own student government leaders before tossing 200,000 student lives across Ontario into chaos. This is absolutely unconscionable – how dare they play Russian roulette with these students and their futures when an independent arbitrator can settle matters fairly, quickly, and without one minute of lost teaching time.”
Yesterday, College Faculty negotiators presented The Council with a proposal to continue bargaining a new contract until midnight on February 10, and then send any unresolved matters to binding arbitration.
“This proposal was specifically designed to avoid a work stoppage and to protect students,” Rosen said. “Every work stoppage in the 43-year history of the colleges has ended with binding arbitration, but not until students missed three weeks of classes. Arbitration gives both sides a chance to short-circuit a strike and arrive directly at the outcome of that strike without students missing one minute of classroom time. Why the college presidents can’t learn from their own 43 years of history is beyond bizarre – it’s frighteningly dangerous.”
The Council’s rejection of binding arbitration, and their request to the Ontario Labour Relations Board to conduct a “Final Offer Vote,” could not come at a worse time. “Since The Council won’t use binding arbitration on February 10 to save the students’ year, they are in essence asking the Ontario Labour Relations Board to conduct a vote in the middle of a work stoppage they could easily prevent right now,” Rosen said. “This is beyond shameful – it’s morally reprehensible.”
“Let’s be clear about this,” Rosen said. “If the Colleges refusal to use binding arbitration on February 10 leads to a strike that ultimately ends in binding arbitration, they’ll have some serious explaining to do. At Niagara, 9,300 students will want answers, and they’ll want tuition refunds. If the colleges are willing to play games with students’ futures, they’d better be ready for the consequences.”
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