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Improving the working conditions and pay for contract staff have been key issues for unions representing both university and college faculty. It was the major issue in a five-week strike by college professors across Ontario in the fall of 2017.

The wage-restraint bill may be a spark that feeds labour unrest across the post-secondary education sector.

Phillips says she’s not optimistic about how contract negotiations will go at Ontario’s universities.

“I think (the legislation) is going to make things very, very difficult,” she said. “I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t say for sure, but anything that gets in the way of the conversation at the table, where you can work out a fair exchange of what managers and workers need, anything that puts a block on that and pulls the two sides apart, is going to make it much more difficult to get there.”

The legislation would also hamper the power of arbitrators to act as an “escape valve” for difficult negotiations, she said. The legislation would prevent arbitrators from making awards that exceed the proposed cap on wage increases, she said.

A spokesperson for the union representing faculty at Ontario colleges puts it bluntly: “We are going to be in for a big fight,” said RM Kennedy, chair for the Ontario colleges faculty division of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Precarious employment of part-time professors was the “No. 1 issue” behind the 2017 college strike, strike, he said.