After months of negotiations, and five weeks on strike, full-time support staff at Ontario's 24 public colleges have a tentative deal.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union announced the tentative deal around 4 a.m. on Wednesday.
It said it will share details with its members on Wednesday afternoon and the workers will be back on the job on Thursday.
"We've won more than a contract," said the chair of the bargaining team, Christine Kelsey. "After being out in our communities, day after day, the public now understands that our college system is being deliberately defunded as part of the collateral of Ford's devastating privatization agenda."
OPSEU says it was early to sound the alarm how the funds from the Skills Development Fund went to multi-million dollar "corporate handouts." It says that money could be used to keep college campuses open, and programs staffed.
"We're going to keep exposing Ford's web of corporate buddies and corrupt backroom deals," said JP Hornick, the president of OPSEU/SEFPO. "This fight is about the future of public education, and it's just beginning."
