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Twenty three days. That’s the average length of the three previous strikes by college faculty in Ontario. As the current strike heads into Day 12, pressure is growing to settle the dispute. But neither the union, college management nor the government appears willing to budge yet.

Student association leaders from eight colleges are pressuring Deb Matthews, the minister responsible for post-secondary education, for a solution that would allow students at 24 colleges to get back to classes.

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Full-time faculty, part-time instructors, counsellors and librarians walked off the job Oct. 16.

So far both Matthews and Premier Kathleen Wynne have declined to intervene, instead urging both sides to get back to bargaining.

Matthews said this week that it was “very troubling” that colleges and the union representing 12,000 striking faculty were not talking to each other.

“I’m urging everybody to think of the students … why the parties aren’t bargaining is beyond me,” Matthews told the Toronto Star on Wednesday, the day faculty staged a rally outside her Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development office.