Dennis Bayazitov | Assistant News Editor

Featured image: Seneca@York students resumed classes Tuesday morning after a five-week stall in education. | Basma Elbahnasawy

More than 500,000 Ontario college students returned to their classes yesterday morning after having been caught in the middle of a strike for just shy of five weeks.

Starting on October 16, this strike marks the longest college faculty strike in the history of Ontario, ending with the 12,000 striking college faculty ordered to return to their jobs Monday morning.

“As of this moment, my understanding is that the strike ended by legislation on Sunday afternoon and our previous collective agreement remains in force until an arbitrator determines the parameters of our next collective agreement,” says OPSEU Local 560 (representing Seneca) President Jonathan Singer.

Any outstanding issues at the bargaining table, rather than being resolved by the College Employer Council (CEC), were referred to an arbitrator.

“Yes, the semester is saved,” confirmed Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews in a media scrum after passing the bill on Sunday.

“Every college has for every program a plan to save the semester. But it’s going to be really hard on students, and it’s going to be hard on faculty because there’s a lot of catching up to do.

“The semester will be extended. That’s a great inconvenience for many students. But, yes, the semester will be saved.”

Any student who dropped out of college due to the five-week strike is eligible to receive full tuition refunds, and any students still enrolled can apply for up to $500 in a student hardship fund.

“We have directed the colleges to set aside the net savings from the strike, as they have not been paying faculty through the strike, and we will very soon be able to talk about how that money will be dispersed,” Matthews clarified.

“It will be returned to students—and those who are facing the greatest financial needs.”

When asked to specify the timeline and what exactly very soon meant, Matthews repeated: “Very soon. We’re very close.”

With regards to how much money the effort would entail, referring to and using the last strike as a guide, “it would be in excess of $5 million.”

The Ontario Liberal government initially attempted to pass the back-to-work legislation last Thursday, but were unable to reach unanimous consent as the NDP blocked the motion, forcing legislature to table the bill and debate it over the weekend. It was conclusively passed on Sunday.

“The back-to-work legislation obviously limited the opportunity for us to negotiate an improved settlement at the table in the wake of our remarkable rejection of the CEC’s forced offer,” Singer says.

The CEC forced an offer vote, also on Thursday, which saw a 95 per cent eligible faculty turnout—over 86 per cent of which rejected the offer on grounds that it failed to address the union’s most significant issues, and introduced additional takeaways faculty had not seen in previously presented offers.

Don Sinclair, CEO of the CEC, notes: “We are very supportive of the government’s actions to introduce and pass the back-to-work legislation. All efforts at the bargaining table had been exhausted and we needed to end the strike and get 500,000 students back in class.”

Matthews said earlier intervention was not possible. “In fact, you’ve heard that there’s some question about whether we’ve even met the threshold.

“The Supreme Court has ruled that you have to have a very good rationale that the academic year was in jeopardy. Had we gone before that final offer vote, this absolutely would have been challenged,” the Minister then said. “It might still be challenged, but I think we have a good argument that we waited long enough, and there was no prospect of a deal.”