After a 17-day stalemate that cancelled classes for more than a half million students and pushed 12,000 instructors to the picket line, the union and colleges are heading back to the bargaining table in an unexpected move that caught one labour analyst by surprise.

The College Employer Council, the group that bargains on behalf of Ontario’s public colleges, has asked the provincially appointed mediator to restart talks Thursday with the union that represents the striking faculty.

“I was starting to think there would be back-to-work legislation soon,” said Johanna Weststar, management and organizational studies professor at Western University.

“It seemed, up until this point, that the council was intent on waiting out the strike with likely the hope of back-to-work legislation being passed.”

Neither side had spoken since faculty walked off the job Oct. 16.

The quick move from no talks one day to formal bargaining the next might be a sign the council is under pressure by the province or students to get back to the table, said Weststar.

But with a negotiated end to the province’s fourth college faculty strike since 1984 possible, and others that were resolved with binding arbitration or back-to-work legislation, Weststar said returning to bargaining has a much better chance of creating a meaningful, long-term solution.

“A bargained deal is a better deal because it does push the two sides to work through their points of disagreement, whereas an arbitrated deal does not do that,” she said.

“The message that’s being sent here is a good one.”

Tens of thousands of students in Southwestern Ontario have had their classes cancelled by the job action, including ones at Fanshawe College’s London, Woodstock, St. Thomas and Simcoe campuses, Lambton College in Sarnia and St. Clair College’s Windsor and Chatham sites.

In a statement, council bargaining chair Sonia Del Missier said she’s hopeful a settlement can be reached quickly enough for students to return to class by early next week.

“This strike has gone on for too long. We need to end the strike and get our students and faculty back in the classroom,” she said. “We will focus our efforts at the table and work very hard to reach a deal that ends the strike.”

En route to a Queen’s Park rally for strike-weary students, Fanshawe Student Union president Morganna Sampson was encouraged both sides were finally talking again.

“They’ve taken a big step. We hope that the reason they’re back is because they’ve heard the concerns of the students and now they’re acting upon them,” she said. “It’s definitely great news.”

And on the eve of the long-awaited talks, OPSEU bargaining team member Darryl Bedford said he’s “cautiously optimistic” both sides can come to an understanding.

Even so, OPSEU is still going ahead with its planned Queen’s Park rally Thursday and will keep its pickets running at Ontario’s 24 strike-shuttered colleges until a deal is reached, Bedford said.

Among the union’s chief concerns is job security and the use of oftentimes lower-paid, contract instructors by the college system. OPSEU was pushing for colleges to employ the same number of full-time as contract workers.

jbieman@postmedia.com

Pleased that both parties in college strike are back to the bargaining table. Now, let's get 500,000 students back in the classroom! — Deb Matthews (@Deb_Matthews) November 1, 2017