United vote: OPSEU brings unionization vote to part-time, sessional Algonquin staff

By Alec James Miske

alec0003@algonquincollege.com

Algonquin’s part-time faculty led the province in casting a historic vote to determine whether they and sessional faculty will be represented by OPSEU. Two rows of teachers filled the hallway at Algonquin College’s Woodroffe campus Jan. 19, some the 425 part-timers of almost 1,400 voters from nine colleges who answered the Ontario Labour Relations Board poll.

“We’re hoping to have one strong, united voice,” said Caron Fitzpatrick, a part-time professor at Algonquin who cast the first ballot in a vote that has taken years of fighting to achieve.

The process for unionizing hasn’t been easy. It was illegal for part-time faculty to be in a union until October 2008 when the McGuinty government passed legislation to allow part-time and sessional teachers to unionize. OPSEU then began a card signing campaign to prove to the Ontario Labour Relations Board that at least 35 per cent of would-be members in the bargaining unit want to unionize.

“We had a great card signing campaign,” said Roger Couvrette the president of the Part-Time Teacher’s Association and professor at Algonquin, adding that the opportunity to improve salary and working conditions were attractive to teachers. The success resulted in the organization of the province-wide vote.

“We want this union, we want equality,” said Fitzpatrick. The advantages of having OPSEU would help bridge the gap between part-time and full-time employees at Algonquin. Currently a part-time or sessional teacher makes one-third to one-fourth less, has no benefits, has no grievance process for legitimate offenses, receives no holiday pay and no statuatory holidays. They do not get paid for prep time for classes, and they do the same job as their full-time counterparts.

“A key component to this campaign is to improve the quality of education here at Algonquin and other colleges across the province,” said Couvrette, citing the current conditions create instability due to a high turnover rate.

In March, the labour board will meet with lawyers from OPSEU to discuss the legitimacy of votes and hear the arguments concerning each disputed vote. If the voter is thought to be ineligible they may still cast a ballot; but it will be placed into a separate envelope and separated from accepted votes.

To determine if a vote is to be allowed or not is very complicated, due to the large number of possible voters and no solid criteria to follow, however OPSEU has said that anyone who has worked part-time in the past six months should vote and have their voice heard.