We are pleased to announce that, after years of delays, the Ontario Labour Relations Board will finally count ballots that were cast in 2017 by Part-Time and Sessional Faculty at Ontario’s 24 Colleges, to be represented by OPSEU as a bargaining unit.
The counting of these ballots will finish on April 17. Following a positive result, OPSEU will begin bargaining improved for Part-Time and Sessional Faculty with the College Employer Council within 90 days.
Negotiating a first collective agreement would see Part-Time and Sessional Faculty mobilizing and standing together to improve their collective terms and conditions of employment, including workload, salary, and job security.
At Seneca, Part-Time and Sessional Faculty would become new members of Local 560, which currently represents Full-Time and Partial-Load Faculty.
To help prepare for the possibility of certification and negotiations, OPSEU is holding a Town Hall for Part-Time and Sessional Faculty on March 19th, from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. This town hall will introduce members to OPSEU, explain what it means to be unionized, and help to prepare for upcoming negotiations.
Current and prospective Part-Time and Sessional Faculty can register for this Town Hall using their non-Seneca email, here.
Please also take a moment to sign up to receive information from the Local, at: https://opseu560.org/part-time-and-sessional-faculty-sign-up-form/
We urge all Full-Time and Partial-Load Faculty to reach out to your Part-Time and Sessional colleagues, to inform them of the upcoming vote count, the Town Hall, and the importance of providing their non-Seneca e-mail address to Local 560.
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.