From Critical Practice to Response: The Outcome of a Singular College Strike

On October 16, 2017, over 12,000 faculty, librarians, and counsellors in 24 independent postsecondary colleges in Ontario, Canada went on strike for the fourth time since they organized in 1971 as members of the Civil Service Association of Ontario and won their first collective agreement the next year. Begun as an apolitical, self-consciously quasi-colonial, and decidedly elitist "professional" body in 1911, the CSAO has transformed itself in name and in nature into an increasingly class-conscious and intermittently militant Ontario Public Service Employees Union with current membership of approximately 180,000 including: clerical staff; community and social service workers; corrections officers; healthcare, transportation, and natural resource workers; as well as college academic and support staff employees. Relations with their employers have become increasingly adversarial and rarely greater than in the college sector. This paper explores this strike.