LONDON,
ONTARIO – OPSEU
President Warren
(Smokey) Thomas is
calling on the McGuinty
government and Ontario’s
colleges to recognize
his union as the
bargaining agent for
more than 12,500
part-time and sessional
college employees “at
the earliest possible
moment.”
“We are
calling on the McGuinty
government to move
quickly to establish a
legislative framework
for part-time and
sessional workers to
take part in collective
bargaining, as is their
right under the Canadian
Charter of Rights and
Freedoms,” said Thomas.
“However, we do not
believe that these
workers should have to
wait one second longer
than necessary while a
new law is drafted,
debated, and passed.
“Justice
delayed is justice
denied,” he said. “These
workers have waited too
long.”
Speedy
recognition of
bargaining rights for
college part-timers and
sessionals should not be
a problem, Thomas said,
as all parties with an
interest in the college
system have voiced their
support for it – the
workers, the McGuinty
government, the colleges
themselves, and (most
recently) the
government’s advisor on
the issue, Kevin
Whitaker.
In his
report released last
week, Whitaker (who also
serves as Chair of the
Ontario Labour Relations
Board) said that “There
is no justification for
excluding these
employees from
collective bargaining.
Part-time employees
should be immediately
granted the right to
unionize.”
In the
past, part-timers and
sessionals had been
barred from collective
bargaining by a section
of the Colleges
Collective Bargaining
Act. Then, in June 2007,
the Supreme Court of
Canada ruled that
collective bargaining is
a protected right under
the Charter of Rights of
Freedoms. OPSEU launched
its organizing drive not
long after.
“In the
next couple of months,
we aim to demonstrate
conclusively that
part-time and sessional
employees at Ontario’s
colleges want our union
to represent them,” said
Thomas. “In our view,
that’s the only thing
that matters. After
that, collective
bargaining should begin
right away.”
Thomas
said that a decision on
the matter is ultimately
in the hands of John
Milloy, Minister of
Training, Colleges, and
Universities.
“While
the colleges like to see
themselves as
independent entities,
the fact of the matter
is that they are
publicly-funded
creatures of the
province and, through
the Minister, directly
accountable to the
people of Ontario,” he
said. “He has the power
to direct the colleges,
and he should.”
