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

Support staff at Conestoga College have been told they can expect layoffs in the near future, causing a lot of fear and anxiety, union representatives say.

Vikki Poirier, president of OPSEU Local 238 which represents support staff at the college, says they've been holding information sessions for employees knowing other colleges are cutting jobs.

Colleges across the province say they have to lay off staff due to international student caps, which are cutting into their budgets. Conestoga College, for instance, saw their intake of international students cut by 50 per cent.

On Friday,  OPSEU local 238 received notice from Conestoga College that it intended to reduce the number of support staff.

On Monday, an internal memo went out to staff.

"There's a lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety, a lot of uncertainty," Poirier said in an interview on CBC K-W's The Morning Edition with host Craig Norris.

LISTEN | Conestoga College gives notice it plans to lay off some full-time support staff, contract workers. Union reps respond:

The Morning Edition - K-W8:20Conestoga College lays off some full-time support staff, contract workers

Layoffs have started at Conestoga College, and there are plans to reduce the number of support staff in the coming weeks. Representatives from two unions at the college tell us more about what they know.

Now, they've now entered a confidential process with the college, and Poirier says they're doing their best to reassure and help workers.

"We're educating members so they're aware of the process. There's misconceptions and misunderstandings. So I don't want to provide inaccurate or unrealistic expectations to them," she said.

Leopold Koff is president of OPSEU Local 237 which represents faculty, counselors and librarians and which also received notice from the college of the intention to reduce staff.

He says this is a time when colleges in Ontario should be investing in what they do, not cutting staff.

"With the Trump tariff wars about to happen and underway, the colleges are in a unique position to be able to give the flexibility and diversity of training and retraining to make our economy and the people and the workers and the employers more flexible and resilient to these tariff wars," he said.

"What the college is doing now is the reverse in terms of reduction of qualified, experienced faculty and administrators and not utilizing the hundreds of millions of dollars they have in cash reserves to maintain the stable basis of the colleges and especially Conestoga."

Conestoga College's spokesperson Brenda Bereczki said the internal memo sent on Monday "stated that discussions with the support staff union over the coming weeks are confidential as outlined in the collective agreement."

More information is expected to be shared in the next few weeks, she said. 

The news of layoffs comes as the college continues plans to expand in Stratford and Guelph and after the province's Sunshine List, released last week, showed Conestoga president John Tibbits was paid $640,005 in 2024, up from $494,716 in 2023.

Poirier says she hopes the college remembers that the support staff her local represents are needed by Conestoga.

They are the "foundation of the college that keeps the college going, keeps the programs going so the faculty can work and that the managers can manage them," she said.

And Koff says the provincial government could do more to save jobs at the colleges.

"I believe that this is an opportunity for the premier to step up and invest in our colleges," Koff said.

"The colleges can turn and pivot. They can provide training and retraining to quote provide to the industry that and our businesses in Canada, Ontario, so that we can compete and be independent and flexible and compete with the world and act independent from the U.S. going forward. The colleges are the secret weapon we have. We should utilize it."