After five weeks on the picket lines, a tentative agreement was announced Wednesday that would bring Ontario’s college support staff back to work. The deal, reached between the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents more than 10,000 full-time college support workers, and the College Employer Council (CEC), follows a weekend of private talks with mediator William Kaplan.

Picket lines had been in place at campuses across the province since Sept. 11, affecting all 24 Ontario colleges. As part of the new deal, all picketing stopped immediately and workers returned to their campuses on Thursday. The agreement covers three years and still needs to be ratified by union members by Nov. 4, 2025.

“We’re grateful to have support staff back on the job – they play an important role in our colleges and in helping students succeed,” said Graham Lloyd, CEO of the College Employer Council.

OPSEU leaders said the gains came because members stood firm. “After months of intensive negotiations with an incredibly difficult employer, the gains made in this agreement would not have been possible without members holding strong these last weeks,” said Christine Kelsey, chair of the union’s bargaining team. She added the strike was necessary in the face of widespread program cuts and job losses across the system.

Locally, Dan Brisson, president of OPSEU Local 672 (which represents full-time support workers at Collège Boréal in Timmins), was emotional about the return to work. “This morning everyone was hugging – faculty were clapping at the doors. People were just happy to see each other,” he told The Daily Press.

So what’s in the deal? Brisson highlighted several concrete wins for members:

• Stronger language to protect jobs from technological change, and clearer definitions of what counts as bargaining-unit work.
• Tighter limits on subcontracting, plus commitments to retraining and extended recall rights if positions are lost.
• Increased severance protections.
• Higher on-call rates (the first increase since 2005) and improved shift premiums (first change since 2008).
• Bereavement leave now explicitly includes chosen family – a change the union had been pushing for years.

On pay, the agreement provides a $1.05 per hour increase across the board in year one, followed by 2% raises in years two and three. “So yeah, we’re pretty okay with what we got as a contract,” Brisson said.

The CEC welcomed the end of the strike as well, saying the past five weeks were difficult for everyone and thanking both bargaining teams and the mediator for their work.

A couple of practical notes: the agreement still needs formal ratification – the union is waiting for the Ontario Labour Relations Board to set the vote date. If ratified, the contract will run until Aug. 31, 2028.

Back on the job, many workers found a pile of catch-up waiting for them. “People were digging through hundreds of emails today – it’s going to take a few days to get things running smoothly again,” Brisson said. Some desks were reportedly in disarray after weeks of absence, but the overall mood, he said, was relief, solidarity, and cautious optimism.