Ontario college dispute 'clearly' not going to be settled by negotiation - James Clancy
Ottawa (24 March 2006) - The 340,000-member National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is giving its full support to OPSEU's request that the Ontario government accept binding arbitration as a means of ending the strike by faculty members at 24 community colleges across the province.
OPSEU, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, is NUPGE's largest Component union.
"While a negotiated settlement is preferable, management has not tabled an offer that does anything to improve the quality of education for college students," NUPGE President James Clancy said in a letter Thursday to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
"As a result, the OPSEU bargaining team has stated their belief that a negotiated settlement is clearly not going to happen. And knowing that arbitration is inevitable, OPSEU sees no reason to keep students from their classrooms and their teachers," Clancy said.
"An arbitration board would be able to hear the case of the faculty and the employer and make a ruling on all issues, choosing the best elements from both sides," he advised the premier.
"As you know, college management has responded to OPSEU’s proposal with an offer to settle the dispute through 'final offer selection' where an arbitrator assesses proposals from the two parties and picks one. Final offer selection is not an acceptable method to settle this dispute because it prevents the arbitrator from choosing the best elements from both sides, and the issues of workload and quality education are too complex and important to be settled in such a fashion," Clancy said.
"As well, final offer selection results in a 'winner' and a 'loser', making it difficult for both parties to move forward together. Once again, I urge you to support voluntary binding arbitration as set out in the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act, so that all matters in these negotiations can be carefully considered by an arbitrator, and students and faculty can return to the classroom." NUPGE
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