FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 23, 2006
OPSEU to McGuinty: Support binding
arbitration
TORONTO – The
bargaining team for striking college faculty is calling on
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to support voluntary binding
arbitration to resolve the strike which began March 7.
The union
team has rejected a proposal by college management to settle
the dispute through “final offer selection,” where an
arbitrator assesses proposals from the two parties and picks
one.
“Harvard law
professor Paul Weiler, former head of the B.C. Labour
Relations Commission, has referred to final offer selection as
‘the industrial relations equivalent of Russian roulette,’ ”
said Ted Montgomery, chair of the bargaining team for the
Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
“It is rarely
used in public sector negotiations, and with good reason. It
prevents the arbitrator from choosing the best elements from
both sides, as is the case with normal arbitration, and it
creates a winner and a loser, rather than a settlement that
both sides can live with.
“We’ve
consulted our experts, we’ve looked at the case law, and it’s
obvious to us that final offer selection is tantamount to
flipping a coin,” said Montgomery. “The issues at stake here
are too complex, and too important, to be settled in such a
fashion.”
“The Premier
needs to put his support behind voluntary binding arbitration
as set out in the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act so
that all matters in these negotiations can be carefully
considered by an arbitrator.”
The strike by
9,100 college faculty continues.
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For more
information: David Cox (416) 788-9197 (cell)
