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Ontario College Support-Staff Strike Enters Third Week After Mediation Fails

The impasse centers on job-security provisions over contracting out and occasional administrative duties that the employer says it cannot accept.

Centennial College is shown in Toronto on Wednesday July 9, 2025. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union says close to 10,000 college faculty and staff have either been let go or are projected to lose their jobs amid hundreds of program cancellations and suspensions since last year.
College support workers walk the picket line at the Algonquin College at the start of the strike. Talks between the two sides broke down this week, continuing the strike.

Overview

  • More than 10,000 full-time support staff at Ontario’s 24 public colleges remain on strike with no return-to-work date after both OPSEU and the College Employer Council said talks collapsed.
  • OPSEU says the employer refused progress on job-security language, citing recent layoffs across the sector and campus-closure announcements as key concerns.
  • CEC CEO Graham Lloyd says the union’s demands on contracting services and limits on administrators doing occasional tasks are untenable and not financially driven.
  • CEC says it tabled enhanced offers exceeding $155 million, including improvements to contracting-out protections, tech-change language, wage increases and other benefits, which the union rejected.
  • Colleges report campuses remain open, with institutions such as Algonquin saying fall classes continue, though student services handled by support staff face disruption.