TORONTO – College workers across Ontario
celebrated after a government
announcement bringing rights for
part-time workers a giant step nearer
reality.
Colleges
Minister Chris Bentley said today that
the McGuinty government intended to
recognize the rights of part-time
college workers to bargain collectively.
The Ontario
Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU),
representing 15,000 full-time academic
and support staff, and the Organization
of Part-time and Sessional Employees of
the Colleges of Applied Arts and
Technology (OPSECAAT) welcomed this as a
huge victory.
“College
workers spoke out for education quality
and fairness, and the government
listened,” OPSEU President Warren
(Smokey) Thomas said. “This will benefit
all workers in the colleges, and the
students, by creating a better
environment to both work and learn.”
“We are going
to take this as a promise by this
government to improve education in
Ontario,” Thomas said.
OPSECAAT
President Roger Couvrette said months of
hard work by college workers across the
province was coming to fruition. “My
appreciation goes out to this government
for recognizing the need to provide
fairness for workers and quality
education for students.”
“This
announcement comes because college
workers worked hard and made it clear
this was an issue of education quality
in our colleges,” Couvrette said.
Last year, the
Geneva-based International Labour
Organization ruled that Ontario’s
Colleges Collective Bargaining Act (CCBA)
should be changed to allow part-time
staff employed by the 24 Ontario
colleges to join a union and engage in
collective bargaining.
As well, in
June 2007, a Supreme Court of Canada
ruling that collective bargaining rights
are protected by the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms gave a boost to the
workers’ cause.
Ontario is the
only province that bars most part-time
including sessional staff in colleges
from joining a union.
