After 8 years of waiting…88% of Part-Time and Sessional Faculty voted to unionize!
Eight years ago, Part-Time and Sessional Faculty voted on whether they would be unionized with the rest of us. The College Employer Council used the might of their lawyers to issue challenge after challenge. For 8 years they challenged..until they ran out of challenges. That is how afraid they are of us being united.
Today, the ballots were finally counted.
88% of Part-Time and Sessional Faculty voted YES!!!
We are now all unionized with OPSEU/SEFPO.
We, at Seneca, are all now part of Local 560.
We are now a Local of (roughly) 2600.
We are now two provincial Divisions (CAAT-A PT and CAAT-A FT) about 33, 000 strong.
After waiting eight years for this day, I cannot tell you how deep my joy is at saying–welcome. We have been waiting for you.
Let’s get together on May 13th to properly meet and to celebrate. See you then!
Anna Ainsworth (she/her/elle), OPSEU/SEFPO
President Local 560
Representing ALL Counsellors, Librarians, and Faculty at Seneca
Going to college in Ontario shouldn’t make you feel like just a number. And working at one shouldn’t end as just another tally in a growing list of layoffs.
Our colleges were built to equip students to enter the workforce and, in turn, build Ontario’s future.
Today, they’re cash-grabs – because the Ford government set them up like a house of cards and walked away from its responsibility to fund them.
And as of today, nearly all of Ontario’s 24 public colleges have announced some combination of devastating program closures, campus closures, and layoffs.
It would take $1.4 billion of immediate bridge funding to stop the cuts and save programs and jobs, and another $1.34 billion to bring per-student funding up to the national average.
Tuition fee revenue has tripled across the colleges since 2010, while provincial funding decreased by 28%. Ontario ranks dead-last among the provinces for per-student funding: $8,411 short of the national average. Since Ford’s election in 2018, international enrolment has tripled, while domestic enrollment is down by 20%. The college system accumulated a record surplus of $1 billion in 2023-24 alone. If invested like annual surpluses in years prior, that’s going to capital assets (i.e. more buildings.) Tuition should go back into the classroom and support services, not towards new vanity projects or administrative bloat.
Send a message to the province here: https://opseu.org/saveourcolleges
Last week we showed the College Employer Council what solidarity looks like and sent a strong message of support to our Bargaining Team. College faculty across the province voted 79% in favour of a strike mandate. The team now has the power at the table to bargain for us.
It’s now up to the College Employer Council to take our bargaining demands seriously.
Our CAAT-A Collective Agreement (2021-2024) currently extends to faculty who are Full-Time or Partial-Load. This includes Professors, Instructors, Counsellors and Librarians.
OPSEU Local 560 represents all Full-Time and Partial-Load faculty at Seneca College.
You are considered Partial-Load if your contract is between 7 and up-to 12 Teaching Contact Hours per week.
If you need help understanding your contract, please get in touch with the Local.