As students prepare to return to campuses across Ontario, more than 10,000 college support workers could walk off the job within weeks, potentially disrupting essential services at all 24 colleges.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), representing librarians, bookstore staff, registrar employees and other frontline support workers, requested a no-board report earlier this month, putting them in a legal strike position as of September 11. Contract negotiations with the College Employer Council (CEC) have been ongoing since June, but key sticking points remain.
Job security at the forefront
Support staff say the strike threat is about protecting both jobs and student services in a system already strained by deep cuts. Christine Kelsey, an assistive technologist at Algonquin College and chair of the bargaining team, described the atmosphere on campuses as chaotic.
“We’re trying to save jobs and we’re trying to save students’ supports,” she told CBC Toronto, noting that cuts have hollowed out colleges at an unprecedented scale.
According to OPSEU, Ontario’s college system has already seen more than 10,000 job losses and the cancellation of over 650 programs, including popular offerings like hairstyling and aesthetics at Algonquin.
Union president JP Hornick said the cuts represent “some of the largest layoffs in Ontario’s history,” arguing that the fight extends beyond the current collective agreement to the very future of Ontario’s public colleges.
Funding pressures and college finances
Administrators, however, paint a grim financial picture. Graham Lloyd, CEO of the CEC, said union demands would cost approximately $900 million over three years — an amount colleges “could never agree to” without crippling operations.
“The colleges are facing a financial crisis right now,” Lloyd said, pointing to declining revenues tied to a federal cap on international student permits. Ontario institutions have already lost more than 45 per cent of their international enrolment, long relied upon to subsidize domestic programs.
Educational policy expert Louis Volante of Brock University said the dispute underscores chronic underfunding in Ontario. “We are the lowest funded province per pupil in the country. What’s at stake is the quality of the learning environments students will be placed in,” he explained.
Talks continue as deadline nears
The CEC has proposed binding arbitration in hopes of averting a strike, while OPSEU insists the colleges are inflating cost estimates and using international enrolment as a “red herring” to justify program closures.
Both sides stress they want an agreement, but with contracts set to expire September 1 and the strike deadline looming just days later, Ontario’s college community faces a period of high uncertainty at the start of the academic year.