'A lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety' for staff at Conestoga College as layoffs loom, union reps say

Kate Bueckert · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 03, 2025 4:33 PM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago

Support unit astatine Conestoga College person been told they tin expect layoffs successful the adjacent future, causing a batch of fearfulness and anxiety, national representatives say.

Vikki Poirier, president of OPSEU Local 238 which represents enactment unit astatine the college, says they've been holding accusation sessions for employees knowing different colleges are cutting jobs.

Colleges crossed the state accidental they person to laic disconnected unit owed to planetary pupil caps, which are cutting into their budgets. Conestoga College, for instance, saw their intake of planetary students chopped by 50 per cent.

On Friday, 2 OPSEU locals received announcement from Conestoga College that it intended to trim the fig of enactment staff.

On Monday, an interior memo went retired to staff.

"There's a batch of fear, there's a batch of anxiety, a batch of uncertainty," Poirier said successful an interrogation connected CBC K-W's The Morning Edition with big Craig Norris.

LISTEN | Conestoga College gives announcement it plans to lay off immoderate full-time enactment staff, declaration workers. Union reps respond:

Now, they've present entered a confidential process with the college, and Poirier says they're doing their champion to reassure and assistance workers.

"We're educating members truthful they're alert of the process. There's misconceptions and misunderstandings. So I don't privation to supply inaccurate oregon unrealistic expectations to them," she said.

Leopold Koff is president of OPSEU Local 237 which represents faculty, counselors and librarians and which besides received announcement from the assemblage of the volition to trim staff.

He says this is simply a clip erstwhile colleges successful Ontario should beryllium investing successful what they do, not cutting staff.

"With the Trump tariff wars astir to hap and underway, the colleges are successful a unsocial presumption to beryllium capable to springiness the flexibility and diverseness of grooming and retraining to marque our system and the radical and the workers and the employers much flexible and resilient to these tariff wars," helium said.

"What the assemblage is doing present is the reverse successful presumption of simplification of qualified, experienced module and administrators and not utilizing the hundreds of millions of dollars they person successful currency reserves to support the unchangeable ground of the colleges and particularly Conestoga."

Conestoga College's spokesperson Brenda Bereczki said the interior memo sent connected Monday "stated that discussions with the enactment unit national implicit the coming weeks are confidential arsenic outlined successful the corporate agreement."

More accusation is expected to beryllium shared successful the adjacent fewer weeks, she said. 

The quality of layoffs comes arsenic the assemblage continues plans to grow successful Stratford and Guelph and aft the province's Sunshine List, released past week, showed Conestoga president John Tibbits was paid $640,005 in 2024, up from $494,716 successful 2023.

Poirier says she hopes the assemblage remembers that the enactment unit her section represents are needed by Conestoga.

They are the "foundation of the assemblage that keeps the assemblage going, keeps the programs going truthful the module tin enactment and that the managers tin negociate them," she said.

And Koff says the provincial authorities could bash much to prevention jobs astatine the colleges.

"I judge that this is an accidental for the premier to measurement up and put successful our colleges," Koff said.

"The colleges tin crook and pivot. They tin supply grooming and retraining to punctuation supply to the manufacture that and our businesses successful Canada, Ontario, truthful that we tin vie and beryllium autarkic and flexible and vie with the satellite and act autarkic from the U.S. going forward. The colleges are the concealed limb we have. We should utilize it."