The Ontario College Podcast

Devoted to covering issues concerning Ontario postsecondary education in general, and the current negotiations between full-time and partial-load faculty at Ontario's Colleges and the College Employer Council, in particular. This podcast contains my personal opinions and those of my guests, and does not reflect in any way the opinion of any employer, college, bargaining unit, Union, Union division, Union local or the CAAT-Academic bargaining team. Or my cats.

Last refreshed: July 14th, 2025 at 8:45 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

EP 6: Stand in the Place Where You Work

Episode Six starts (00:50-7:26) with Jonathan discussing current Bargaining Team events and offering an overview of the forced offer vote, scheduled for Feb.15-17, and the reasons to reject the CEC's current offer. It continues (7:35-56:23) with an interview with the three newest CAAT-A bargaining team members, discussing the bargaining unit's first-ever attempt at work-to-rule, how bargaining relates to the mental health of our membership, and how to interpret the College's fiscal reporting. It...

Feb 10, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 6

EP5: Conciliation, Strike Vote, and Work-to-Rule

Episode Five starts (0:49-5:35) with Jonathan covering bargaining events including Conciliation, the successful strike authorization vote, the Employer’s imposition of Terms & Conditions of employment, and the start of Work-to-Rule. It continues (5:36-18:48)with a deep dive into the explicit and implicit messages of the Employer’s deployment of the Colleges’ communications platforms for Captive Audience Messages, before finishing off with an interview (19:10-40:00) with JP Hornick, Chair of ...

Dec 24, 2021•43 min•Season 1Ep. 5

EP4: Facts, Fiction & Conciliation

In Episode Four (recorded on Tuesday, Nov. 16), Jonathan starts by analyzing an interesting trend in the recent messages from the College Employer Council, before looking at the current state of bargaining, at the cusp of Conciliation following the CEC’s latest escalation. The episode wraps up with a discussion of the faculty bargaining team’s approach to proposals, with a deep dive into the super-sexy topic of the importance of dispute resolution mechanisms for joint committees. READ: a) The CA...

Nov 18, 2021•35 min

EP3: Mediation, Not Escalation

Episode 3 starts with an overview of the events of the last week at the bargaining table between the union representing faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges and the College Employer Council. This includes the several proposals tabled by the CEC, as well as the proposal for a pre-conciliation mediation process, presented by the faculty bargaining team. Then, Prof. Howard Doughty joins me to discuss his observations about the College system, based on his fifty years’ experience. The episode wra...

Sep 21, 2021•55 min

EP2: Quality Control

In Episode 2, Jonathan offers a broad overview of the College Employer Council’s positions and responses presented at the bargaining table on August 10-12, before interviewing Profs. Kevin MacKay and Martin Devitt, authors of the soon-to-be-published 2021 Update on Education in Ontario Colleges .

Aug 30, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 2

EP1: Bargaining Now

In this inaugural episode (recorded August 7), Jonathan interviews JP Hornick, Chair of the College Faculty CAAT-A Bargaining Team, fresh off a second set of bargaining dates with the College Employer Council. Topics include the bargaining process that led to this point, the origins of the CAAT-A division's current approaches to bargaining, and the experience of being at the bargaining table. The Union's bargaining proposals can all be found at www.collegefaculty.org, where OPSEU Bargaining Bull...

Aug 15, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 1

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