Georgian College will not let any students miss out on their academic year.
Executive Director of Human Resources and Organization Development Lori Bell says they will have a plan in place to make sure all Georgian College students get the education they paid for. This follows an announcement from the OPSEU College Faculty Union representatives that over 12,000 full and part-time faculty members are on strike across Ontario.
Bell says it’s hard to tell what that plan will look like until college officials have an idea of how long this strike will run for.
Faculty members are on strike after negotiations between the College Faculty Union and the College Employer Council broke down on Sunday night. The representatives of the Union are asking for a nine per cent increase to the maximum full-time faculty salary over three years, which would bring it to over $116,000. The CEC says this increase doesn’t fall in line with other public sector salaries. The counter offer from CEC is a 7.5 per cent increase over four years, bringing the salary cap to over $115,000.
The union also wants to level out the contract and full-time positions. Right now contract positions are about 70 per cent with the rest being full-time. The union wants these positions to be 50/50 to offer more job security with full-time positions. CEC says this will mean over 3,000 contract workers will have to be let go in this transition.
CEC says overall the cost of these changes will run over $250 million, which will lead to Ontario colleges spending over $1 billion annually on salaries.
While all part and full-time classes at all the campuses including Muskoka are cancelled, Bell says the majority of co-op and placement programs will not be affected.
She says clinical placements are suspended during the strike. You can find all the details on how this will be affecting Georgian College students here.