February 7, 2011
In a letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty,
OPSEU president Smokey Thomas writes that the Minister of
Training, Colleges and University has the legislative
authority to order Colleges to count the ballots of
part-time college workers who voted more than two years ago
to organize.
February 3, 2011
The Hon. Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building
Room 281, Queen’s Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1
Dear Premier McGuinty
After years of lobbying by OPSEU and
its members in our community colleges, your government
amended the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act to allow
part-time academic and support staff the right to unionize
and to participate in collective bargaining. This was an
historical achievement that helped lay the ground work for
Ontario’s economic and social prosperity.
More than 9,000 part-time academic
and support staff signed membership cards and chose OPSEU as
their union believing they would gain collective bargaining
rights.
In 2009, thousands of part-time
College workers cast a ballot to join OPSEU. Since then, the
Colleges have mounted a costly and anti-democratic legal
fight to block the counting of those ballots. Both votes
remain uncounted because of their unscrupulous tactics.
Surely this was not the intent of your government when it
amended the Act more than two years ago.
The International Labour
Organization, a respected agency of the United Nations, has
taken notice. In a decision released three months ago, the
ILO urged your government to sit down with OPSEU and to
arrive at a solution that respects the democratic wishes of
those who voted. Instead of taking action, your government
continues to ignore the growing international condemnation
over the denial of basic rights for part-time college
workers. At the end of the day, the ILO decision is about
allowing the votes to speak for themselves – in a democracy,
our elected officials have a responsibility to make sure
this happens.
There is a way out. Under s. 4(1)
and s. 5(1) of the Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and
Technology Act (2002) the Minister of Training, Colleges and
Universities may intervene into the affairs of the Colleges
to ensure the public interest is met. In other words,
Minister John Milloy can order the Colleges to withdraw
their objections to counting the ballots under s. 31 of the
CCBA (2008) to the two applications for certification by
OPSEU.
What makes this particular group of
Ontarians so unique that they continue to have their
fundamental human right to join a trade union, repeatedly
and blatantly ignored? What is so special about the men and
women who are charged with the education of the youth of our
province that allows the Colleges to deny them their
collective bargaining rights? These college workers not only
teach and support our next generation of highly skilled
workers. They are also responsible for retraining displaced
workers who are vital to our province’s economy.
There is an honorable manner by
which full democratic rights can be restored to thousands of
employees of our community college system. The solution is
contained in the legislative authority vested in the
Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.
I strongly urge you to uphold the
democratic process and to respect the will of part-time
academic and support staff at our community colleges. It is
in your power to order the sealed ballot boxes to be opened
and the votes to be counted.
Sincerely
Warren (Smokey) Thomas
President
