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February 6, 2009
The votes are in the box
Getting them counted is the next challenge
After three weeks of steady,
sometimes heavy, voting, part-time and sessional college faculty have cast their
ballots on whether they want OPSEU as their bargaining agent.
Voting in Toronto this week netted
more than 1,100 votes, pushing the total turnout since Jan. 19 to 3,544 voters.
But the challenge now is to have
those votes counted, says Roger Couvrette, president of the organization of
part-timers and sessionals (OPSECAAT).
“The colleges have already asked
the Ontario Labour Relations Board to deny our application for certification
outright,” said Couvrette. “They want the ballot boxes to remain sealed and they
don’t want the votes to be counted.
“The next stage in this struggle is
to get those boxes open.”
Most people who hear that the vote
won’t automatically be counted are stunned by the news, Couvrette said.
“It really is outrageous,” he said.
“In the last five weeks the colleges themselves have been actively urging
part-timers and sessionals to get out and vote, while at the Labour Relations
Board their lawyers have argued against counting those same votes.
“The disrespect they are
demonstrating towards their part-time workers is shameful,” Couvrette said. “It
risks poisoning the college work environment for years to come. You’d think some
college presidents would be concerned about this and voicing their concerns.”
The first opportunity to discuss
counting the votes will be at a Labour Relations Officer meeting set for March
24. The union will be pushing to have the ballot boxes opened and the votes
counted as soon as possible.
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey)
Thomas says it may be time for colleges minister John Milloy to put his foot
down with the colleges.
“In October, the McGuinty
government changed the law to allow collective bargaining by part-time and
sessional college faculty, and we believe the results of the vote will prove
that they want to exercise that right,” Thomas said.
“The colleges should quit wasting
taxpayers’ money on a fight they’ve already lost, and the Minister of Training,
Colleges, and Universities should tell them so in the plainest language
possible.”
Watch the next edition of the
Part-Time Times for more details on the ongoing campaign for bargaining rights
for college part-timers and sessionals.
Vote problems at Seneca, George Brown
The vote did not go smoothly at two
Toronto colleges this week.
At Seneca College, the Labour
Relations Officer arrived at the Markham campus an hour and 15 minutes late on
Feb. 4, leaving several voters frustrated and angry after trekking across the
city to the polling station. While the vote time was extended by 30 minutes,
this did not help voters who had arrived on time but had to leave before voting
began.
Meanwhile, at Seneca’s Newnham
Campus, college management stationed security guards outside the polling place,
which may have been intended to intimidate voters, said OPSEU organizer Bill
Howes. Howes protested to the Labour Relations Officer and the guards were
removed.
Seneca human resources people also
tried to chase OPSEU scrutineers from the hallways but backed down after Howes
challenged them.
“I basically told them that the
colleges are public property and that we had a right to be there,” said Howes.
“Secondly, we have freedom of speech in this country and we have the right to
approach people to encourage them to vote, and to encourage them to vote yes.”
Meanwhile, at George Brown, college
management tore down VOTE YES posters from union bulletin boards. They also tore
down posters from Student Association bulletin boards, even though the SA had
authorized and stamped them.
The vote location at George Brown’s
St. James location was also very hard to find.
“At the St. James campus, we had
asked for a room in the main building near the main entrance, but the college
refused,” said OPSEU organizer Brenda Wall. “To get to the vote location at 290
Adelaide St. E., you had to enter at 200 King St. E., find your way through a
maze to get to the back of the building, cross the road, and walk down an alley
beside 300 Adelaide to get to the building behind it where the voting was taking
place.
“It was not an easy place to find,
especially for people who came out to vote from other colleges.”
Despite the difficulties, both
locations had solid vote turnouts. Over the week, 283 people voted at Humber
College, 210 at Centennial, 355 at Seneca, and 260 at George Brown.
Support staff campaign set for reboot
The end of the certification vote
for part-time and sessional faculty will re-start the card-signing campaign for
part-time college support staff, says Candy Lindsay, vice-president of the
organization of part-timers and sessionals (OPSECAAT).
“Obviously we have put a lot of energy in the last three weeks
into the faculty vote, but now that it’s over we’re going to be directing a lot
of that energy into signing up support staff,” said Lindsay, who works part-time
as support staff at Fleming College in Peterborough. “Our commitment to those
workers has not changed. We hope to be able to apply to have OPSEU represent
them as soon as possible.”
The Part-Time Times is authorized
for distribution by Roger Couvrette, president of the Organization of Part-Time
and Sessional Employees of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (OPSECAAT),
and Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees
Union.
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