TORONTO,
TIMMINS – The drive to
win union representation
for more than 12,500
Ontario college workers
is kicking into high
gear this week, the
Ontario Public Service
Employees Union says.
“Since
the launch of our
campaign last October we
have made significant
progress and reached our
interim goals for
signing up part-time and
sessional employees at
24 Ontario community
colleges,” said OPSEU
president Warren
(Smokey) Thomas. “We now
have the machinery in
place to reach our final
target within the next
10 to 12 weeks. We will
be doing everything
necessary to be
certified as the
bargaining agent for
these workers as soon as
possible.”
The
largest union drive in
Ontario history became
possible in June 2007
when the Supreme Court
of Canada ruled that
collective bargaining is
a protected right under
the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. In
August 2007, the
McGuinty government
announced its intention
to recognize bargaining
rights for those
workers.
Under a
strange clause of the
complex Colleges
Collective Bargaining
Act, part-time and
sessional workers had
been excluded from union
membership. The Supreme
Court ruling nullified
that exclusion, OPSEU
says.
Roger
Couvrette, president of
the provincial
organization of
part-timers and
sessionals, says
unionization will have a
“positive and
noticeable” effect on
the quality of education
all colleges deliver.
“Dramatically
substandard wages and
working conditions for
part-timers and
sessionals are causing a
crisis of retention and
recruitment for the
colleges,” Couvrette
said. “Part-time faculty
and support staff come
in to the college,
scramble to get up to
speed, get discouraged
by the poor treatment,
and leave. When good
employees walk out the
door, it’s the students
who suffer.”
Couvrette is on a tour
of Northern College and
will meet the media at a
news conference in
Timmins at 10:30 a.m.
Campaign organizers at
Humber College in
Toronto are hosting a
media event at their
college today at 2:15
p.m.
