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February 26, 2004
To all OPSEU members
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
I am writing because our second-largest bargaining unit – the faculty members at all of Ontario’s 24 Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology – may be on strike as of March 3.
This is a group of 8,600 teachers, counsellors and librarians who work full-time or have partial-load assignments in the colleges.
I’m writing because this strike has potential impact on many of you in different ways. The colleges employ a large number of part-time and sessional people who are not part of our bargaining unit. If you are one of those people, I ask you to honour the picket lines at the colleges and not go in to teach. Another large group of
people teach in night school programs and continuing education. On behalf of all of OPSEU, I ask you to honour the picket lines set up by faculty.
Many more of you will have children or other family members enrolled in college programs. I ask you to explain to them that if the faculty are forced into a strike, it is because they are fighting for quality education in the colleges. The employer is trying to take away controls on faculty workload that were achieved through two
strikes in the 1980s. Faculty, in turn, want their contract to recognize the huge changes that technology has made to the teaching process.
There is more information on their issues on the OPSEU website: www.opseu.org. I encourage you to support faculty in any way you can in this important struggle.
In solidarity,
Leah Casselman
President
LC/mkfr
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