Campaigners Maureen Wall, Martha Josephian and John Huot stand in front of H 109, Humber’s union office.
photo by josh long

Job security will be a major issue when part-time faculty decide on Monday whether to join the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Vice-president of the part-time support union of Ontario colleges Carol Lindsay disagrees with the lack of notice part-time faculty get before they start work.

“Some faculty get a call on a Friday to start a course on a Monday, when they’re part-time, which is absurd because they have to get the outlines ready,” Lindsay said.

This concern is shared by at least one of Humber’s part-time faculty members, who did not want to be named.

“One of the main concerns is knowing in advance if and what I’ll be teaching from semester to semester,” said the teacher. “It’s stressful waiting to the last minute to find out how many courses I’ll get and what courses I’ll get.”

Part-time faculty member David Brock said job security is the most important issue.

“Job security, knowing how many classes you’re going to have,” he said.

Without a collective bargaining contract, it is not possible to bargain collectively on behalf of parttime faculty said Maureen Wall, an OPSEU steward campaigning to unionize part-timers at Humber.

“Right now, only the full time and partial load teachers are in the bargaining unit,” Wall said.

Until October 2008, part-time faculty were excluded from the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act, said Leonard
Marvy, a lawyer for the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

“Before, they weren’t defined in the bargaining act, they were excluded,” Marvy said.

Orville Getz, president of Humber College’s OPSEU local said that since  the act has been amended to include part-time faculty, a majority of parttime workers at all 24 Ontario colleges must vote in favour of joining PSEU in order to unionize.

Though Getz and Humber’s administration agree that if fewer than 35 per cent of eligible voters vote, the results will not be considered, they disagree about who is eligible to vote.

Getz said the colleges only want to consider part-time faculty working as of last Dec. 2, which he said would exclude many who worked half of last semester.

OPSEU would like to make parttimers who worked this past year eligible to have their vote counted, said Getz.

Wall said those later found ineligible will have their ballots discarded without being counted after a decision has been reached.

If the certification vote passes, part-time contracts will be determined collectively rather than individually, said Deb McCarthy, director of HR services.

“If they vote in favour of a union, they would become unionized and therefore, represented by one bargaining agent,” said McCarthy. “So, on an individual level, they can’t bargain for contracts, or their own terms and conditions of employment, it would be bargained for them.”

Voting has already started at other Ontario colleges, and part-time faculty may vote at any college in Ontario.