Colleges have asked Ontario Labour Relations Board to deny application for certification outright - want the ballot boxes to remain sealed and they don’t want the votes to be counted. Union calls on Minister to act.
Toronto (9 Feb. 2009) - After three weeks of steady, sometimes heavy voting, part-time and sessional college faculty have cast their ballots on whether they want the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) as their bargaining agent.
Voting in Toronto this week netted more than 1,100 votes, pushing the total turnout since Jan. 19 to 3,544 voters.
But the challenge now is to have those votes counted, says Roger Couvrette, president of the Organization of Part-timers and Sessionals Employees of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (OPSECAAT).
“The colleges have already asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to deny our application for certification outright,” said Couvrette. “They want the ballot boxes to remain sealed and they don’t want the votes to be counted.
“The next stage in this struggle is to get those boxes open.”
Most people who hear that the vote won’t automatically be counted are stunned by the news, Couvrette said.
“It really is outrageous,” he said. “In the last five weeks the colleges themselves have been actively urging part-timers and sessionals to get out and vote, while at the Labour Relations Board their lawyers have argued against counting those same votes.
“The disrespect they are demonstrating towards their part-time workers is shameful,” Couvrette said. “It risks poisoning the college work environment for years to come. You’d think some college presidents would be concerned about this and voicing their concerns.”
The first opportunity to discuss counting the votes will be at a Labour Relations Officers meeting set for March 24. The union will be pushing to have the ballot boxes opened and the votes counted as soon as possible.
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas says it may be time for colleges minister John Milloy to put his foot down with the colleges.
“In October, the McGuinty government changed the law to allow collective bargaining by part-time and sessional college faculty, and we believe the results of the vote will prove that they want to exercise that right,” Thomas said.
“The colleges should quit wasting taxpayers’ money on a fight they’ve already lost, and the Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities should tell them so in the plainest language possible.”
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE
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