OPSEU to organize part-time college support workers

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: JESSICA THOMPSON
Gary Siroen, president local 109 OPSEU, is beginning a year-long campaign to organize part-time college support workers, to achieve equity for everyone.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) set out to prove that the third time’s a charm in their efforts to unionize part-time college support workers.

Beginning on Sept. 1, OPSEU’s campaign will run until Sept. 1, 2016, and the names of the people who sign union cards will be sent to the government.

If 35 per cent of part-time workers sign, the college will be forced to unionize part-time workers.

“This time we are not trying to convince workers they need a union,” said president of OPSEU Warren Thomas. “This time we are quite confident that we will sign enough cards and win the drive to be unionized.”

Thomas went on to describe that what they did wrong in the past was they were not aware of exactly who was registered as a part-time college support worker.

“If the president of the college hired someone for a one-day event, he counted them as a part-time worker.”

Unlike full-time staff, part-time college support workers are not entitled to paid sick days, paid vacation days or health benefits. They have no job security, cannot control when they work or even the hours they work. In many cases, they are paid less than a full-time staff member who is doing the same work.

According to Gary Siroen, president local 109 OPSEU, the fulltime worker ratio compared to the part-time ratio is almost the same, which shows the need for work at Fanshawe, but also the lack of availability for full-time work.

“I am not telling the college what to do or how to run their business, that’s not our call,” Siroen said. “Our call is about treating people fair… we’re looking at the college and saying ‘if you need the [parttime workers] that’s fine, but treat them fairly, treat them the same as full-time.’”

As mentioned above, OPSEU has tried to organize two campaigns prior to this one.

“The first time [was] a test run, we wanted to test out exactly what we can do… we are [on] Crown land and have to follow certain laws and we can only go about [unionizing] in a certain way,” Siroen said.

OPSEU first organized in 2008, where they were met with legal obstruction by the government.

“The Liberals enacted Bill 90, which allowed part-time college workers to organize,” Thomas said in an OPSEU press release. “Then they turned around and spent millions of taxpayer dollars in legal fees to obstruct their own legislation. They prevented the ballot boxes from even being opened, thereby gagging the voice of thousands of workers.”

But according to both Thomas and Siroen, this time OPSEU is more organized.

“At Fanshawe, we are trying to do this campaign to figure out how many part-time workers are actually here…we are just looking for the equity and the fairness [for these workers]. We’re human beings who deserve the same rights and the same respect,” Siroen said.

Siroen also stressed the fact that all signatures will be confidential.

“We have created our own database, when a person signs a card, their information goes into a database, OPSEU is guaranteeing us it is secure… The colleges never see who signed, they just know a percentage.”

But on Fanshawe’s side of the debate, do they fear OPSEU’s move to campaign once again?

According to Jeff Low, Fanshawe’s executive director of human resources, he believes the school treats their part-time workforce with respect.

“[The part-time workers] are well compensated, well recognized and they are very valuable to us; the part-time workforce is part of the Fanshawe family.”

And if the 35 per cent threshold is met and Fanshawe is forced to unionize their part-time college support workers, Low believes the school will change to meet the new contracts.

“I think it’s a personal decision when people choose to unionize,” Low said. “People can make their own decisions and if that’s what the part-time workforce wants to do then we will respect that.”

But there is one tip to keep in mind; if a part-time worker wishes to get in contact with Siroen, “Please don’t use the college email because the college will monitor your email; use your personal email account.”

OPSEU is an association that stresses the equality and equity for all workers, “You can’t live a fulltime life,” said Thomas, “on a parttime salary.”