Membership drive planned in 2007 to overturn law barring part-timers from joining unions
Toronto - (20 Nov. 2006) - Delegates representing some 16,000 faculty and support staff at Ontario's 24 colleges have formed a provincial association.
The employees are currently barred by provincial law from joining a union, a situation condemned last week by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva as a violation of the obligations that Canada has sworn to uphold under international rights and labour conventions.
The organizing ban is written into the Ontario Colleges Collective Bargaining Act.
The new association will begin a membership drive early in 2007 and intends to mount a political campaign to change the current law. Delegates at the weekend meeting elected a 10-member executive, including five members each from support staff and faculty.
Roger Couvrette
Roger Couvrette, a part-time teacher at Algonquin College in Ottawa, is the organization's first president.
He slammed the Ontario government for allowing "third-world working conditions to persist in Ontario colleges" as a result of legislation banning a union for part-timers.
"You expect to hear the ILO ruling on the way companies treat workers in countries like Indonesia and India. These workers are a source of cheap labour; they have no job security; their working conditions are abysmal, and they have no benefits," Courvrette said.
"Like these workers, the 16,000 part-time college workers in Ontario's community colleges are also a source of cheap labour. We have no job security. Our working conditions are abysmal. We have no benefits," he added.
The ILO is a United Nations agency that promotes social justice and internationally-recognized human and labour rights. ILO conventions establish basic labour rights, including freedom of association, the right of workers to organize, the right to bargain collectively, abolition of forced labour and standards dealing with a wide range of other work-related issues.
Tripartite body
The ILO has an international structure that involves an equal partnership of workers, employers and governments.
The ILO decision against the Ontario government is the latest in a long string of rulings the ILO has made against Canadian provinces for violating worker rights and standards that Canada has undertaken over the years as an ILO and United Nations member to uphold.
Several recent decisions have been issued condemning laws passed by the British Columbia government of Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell, the Quebec government of Liberal Premier Jean Charest and the Newfoundland government of Premier Danny Williams.
To date, neither the federal government of Conservative Premier Stephen Harper, nor the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin preceding it, have done anything to put pressure on the provinces to uphold Canada's international obligations.
The result is that Canada has acquired a steadily worsening record of international hypocrisy on labour and human rights issues it is supposed to be enforcing within its national borders. NUPGE
More information:
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
