After 7-year delay, ballot boxes to re-open at 24 Ontario colleges

Seven years after part-time and sessional faculty across 24 Ontario colleges cast their vote on a possible unionization, the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) has decided to re-open ballot boxes.

The OLRB decision came on July 30, 2024 after part-time and sessional faculty members originally voted to join the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/SEFPO) in October 2017, according to the union.

"This is a hard-won victory directly flowing from years of effort by organizers and activists. We welcome the imminent announcement that OPSEU/SEFPO is growing, with new members at colleges across the province," said OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick. "And we're going to fight hard for contract faculty, who have waited long enough, to secure the respect they deserve."

The union is confident that these workers will officially gain full union representation under OPSEU/SEFPO as a new bargaining unit. That will set the stage for negotiations to begin with the College Employer Council (CEC) and set contract faculty on the road towards the unit's first collective agreement.

"We are confident that the ballot count will tell us what we already know: part-time and sessional faculty at Ontario colleges want to enjoy the protections and improvements to working conditions under union representation," said Rebecca Ward, President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 732 representing faculty at Confederation College, and an OPSEU/SEFPO College Divisional Executive member. "The CEC knows this, too, and have pumped the brakes at every turn – but still couldn't stop the momentum of years of worker organizing."

In February, an arbitrator awarded Ontario elementary and secondary teachers retroactive wage increases to compensate them for constrained wages as a result of Bill 124.

‘Nothing can stop the momentum of workers organizing’

OPSEU claimed that there was a clear demonstration of surpassing the 35% threshold of members signing union cards in 2017 among part-time and sessional faculty members in Ontario.

However, the CEC raised an objection under Section 31 of the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act (CCBA), challenging that support. That objection forced the sealing of the ballot box and initiated a protracted seven-year process of verifying the voters' list.

Hornick said that the CEC used similar tactics in 2016, when 20,000 part-time college support staff voted on whether to join OPSEU/SEFPO after a 14-year-long campaign.

"The CEC's challenges delayed a decision at the OLRB for over two years," said Hornick. "When the ballots were finally counted, an overwhelming 84% voted in favour of joining OPSEU/SEFPO – marking the largest organizing drive in the Canadian labour movement's history."

"The ongoing objection by the CEC to a final vote count has been a long-standing barrier stalling the conclusion of union certification for some of the most precariously employed faculty across the province," added Jeff Brown, faculty at George Brown College and an OPSEU/SEFPO College Divisional Executive member.

"Despite the employer's use of every conceivable delay tactic to prevent the counting of the ballots – expending millions of taxpayer dollars in the process – we are finally on the precipice of welcoming part-time and sessional faculty voices into the Union."

Late in August 2023, support staff at public colleges in Ontario secured bigger wages and extended benefits from their employers. The CEC and Ontario Public Service Union - full-time college support (OPSEU/SEFPO CAAT) mutually agreed to boost the previously set wage increases for these workers.