BY KEITH LACEY
A new union representing 17,000 part-time teaching and support staff at Ontario’s 24 community colleges has launched membership drives at Cambrian College and College Boreal.
Last November, the International Labour Union decided to ignore the province’s policy that doesn’t allow college part-time employees to join a recognized union and negotiate collective agreements.
“We are here today to right a historical wrong,” said Roger Couvrette, president of the recently-formed Organization of Part-Time and Sessional Employees of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (OPSECAAT).
Once the membership drive is completed, OPSECAAT plans to meet with government officials to challenge existing laws and work out a collective agreement for members, he said.
Couvrette was joined by Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU) representatives David Starbuck (Cambrian College) and J.P. Belanger (College Boreal).
Part-time college teachers and support staff have no job security, low wages, no benefits and no pensions and this is bordering on criminal considering there are now more part-time staff (17,000) than full-time (15,000), said Couvrette.
Without union representation, there is no grievance procedure in place and nowhere for complaints to be heard, he said.
“So, we can be, and sometimes are, intimidated and harassed,” he said.
“We get paid a small fraction of what our full-time counterparts get paid for identical work.
“Every day, college management drives truckloads and truckloads of thousands and thousands of part-time workers through that loophole (not allowing part-timers to unionize).”
The membership drive being launched by OPSECAAT “is one of the largest membership drives in the history of the labour movement in Ontario,” said Couvrette.
“I want to point out that in every college, there is enormous solidarity in this membership drive between part-time and full-time staff,” he said.
Starbuck said part-time teaching staff at Cambrian earn in the range of $40 per hour, but this includes preparation, evaluation and full access to students seeking assistance.
