The future for Canadore students is still very cloudy.
Today, the province announced the majority of college faculty members rejected an offer from the College Employer Council. The province gave faculty members two days to vote on the deal after negotiations broke down between the council and the OPSEU union reps, which led to a faculty strike in early October. Out of faculty members who voted, 86 per cent turned the offer down. Officials with the faculty union say the deal didn’t address their major concerns about fairness for faculty and education quality.
Canadore College President George Burton says faculty is exercising its democratic right to vote this deal down, but the strike needs to end to get students back to class. Burton says officials will be looking for direction from provincial officials on what happens next. Classes at Canadore have already been extended to December 22nd to make up for the lost time and could start again just over a week later in January.
You can read the full response from Canadore College here.
The Ontario government’s second attempt to get college students back to class did not get unanimous support. Premier Kathleen Wynne will table back-to-work legislation for the third time during a special sitting tomorrow afternoon.
Updated at 4pm.