HAMILTON
– The new collective
bargaining arrangement
between Dofasco and the
United Steelworkers
points the way for
Ontario’s community
colleges to begin
contract talks
immediately with college
part-timers, the Ontario
Public Service Employees
Union says.
“The
Dofasco model shows how
bargaining can take
place prior to union
certification, subject
to workers voting in
favour of the collective
agreement that results,”
said Roger Couvrette,
president of the
provincial organization
of part-timers and
sessionals (OPSECAAT).
“College part-timers and
sessionals have been
denied bargaining rights
for 34 years – by a
piece of legislation
that we now know is
unconstitutional – and
they’ve waited long
enough.
“We are
reiterating our
invitation to the
colleges: ‘Come to the
bargaining table now.’”
In 2007,
after an unusual chain
of events, OPSEU
launched the largest
union organizing drive
in Ontario history. As
the union was pressuring
the province to change
the Colleges Collective
Bargaining Act (CCBA) to
lift the ban on
unionization of
part-timers and
sessionals, the Supreme
Court of Canada ruled
that collective
bargaining is a
protected right under
the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms.
Weeks later, the
McGuinty government
announced its intention
to recognize bargaining
rights for the excluded
college workers.
Organizing began in
October.
A review
of the CCBA by Kevin
Whitaker, Chair of the
Ontario Labour Relations
Board, recommended in
January 2008 that
“Part-time employees
should be immediately
granted the right to
unionize.”
Two
weeks ago, OPSEU
President Warren
(Smokey) Thomas wrote to
the colleges, saying
“part-time and sessional
college employees have
expressed a strong
desire to be represented
by OPSEU” and calling
for voluntary collective
bargaining to begin
right away.
“All
parties to this issue
have agreed that college
part-timers should have
bargaining rights,” said
Couvrette. “The only
question that remains is
when, and as a
part-timer myself, I’m
impatient.
“There’s
no time like the present
for bargaining to
start,” he said, “and
there’s no good reason
for it not to.”
