Ontario announces legislation to ban college strike, NDP blocks

Ontario premier Kathleen Wynee met the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the College Employer Council (CEU) on Thursday after they voted against the contract offer.

Wynne was quoted by media: "I asked them to work together to find a path forward that would see students return to class by Monday."

"That's why we are immediately tabling legislation that would end the dispute and return Ontario college students to the classroom where they belong. Under the proposed legislation that we're introducing today, all outstanding issues would be referred to binding mediation-arbitration" she added.

However, the move by the Wynne government was not well accepted by opposition party, the NDP.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath told media: "It looks like Kathleen Wynne wanted to use anti-worker back-to-work legislation all along. She spent barely an hour at the table today, after doing nothing for five long weeks."

Horwath said he wants the students to get back to the classrooms again but the deal should be finalised first.

The union had voted against the contract offer. As per OPSEU, 86% of the members voted against the offer while 95% of the eligible voters cast their votes.

JP Hornick, chair of OPSEU's faculty bargaining team, was quoted by media: "No one is surprised that college faculty rejected the council's forced offer. It was full of concessions and failed to address our concerns around fairness for faculty or education quality."

(Reporting by Suman Das)

Image: Facebook page of Kathleen Wynne