On Monday, your bargaining team gives our employer Notice to Bargain, kicking off one of the most important bargaining rounds in our Division’s history.
Thousands of surveyed members identified core issues for this bargaining round – including better wages and stronger job security – that will shape the proposals that hit the table.
Our first days at the bargaining table are June 17-19. Throughout this bargaining round, we’ll make sure that you know what’s happening every step of the way – and what part you can play to realize our plan to win.
But what we can win at the table depends on our power. We build that power by laying the groundwork to engage every member in our fight.
We know this employer – so we expect to hear from the boss much of what we’ve heard years prior: there’s no money, you’re asking for too much, we need to cut from somewhere else.
No employer just hands over a better deal. Bargaining is always a matter of negotiating priorities, and we shift those priorities through building and flexing our collective power.
We power the colleges. We support students: directly, and hands-on. And yet we are facing lay-offs when presidents and senior leadership in the colleges, making hundreds of thousands annually, are still getting raises of 10% to 30%.
College executives are long overdue to be held accountable to the right priorities. They can step up to the plate and advocate for adequate public funding, which has shrunk over the decades from covering 75% of college operating costs to less than 30%.
Here are actions YOU can take to support the fight at the table, and beyond:
- On Monday, wear BLUE – send a message to the employer that you stand behind our shared demands! It matters: take a group photo with your colleagues and send to [email protected].
- Answer the call to Save Our Colleges – make sure that you and your co-workers sign the petition to send a message to their elected officials that we need real, public funding of the system to put an end to campus cuts.
- Connect with an organizer at your union Local and get involved! You can reach out through your Local president, or reply to this email and we’ll connect you.
- Support our part-time colleagues, also in bargaining. As their fight heats up, we’ll let you know tangible actions you can take to build a united front that lifts everyone up.
At a time when the 2025 Ontario budget is projecting more cuts to post-secondary education, we need everyone in this fight to send a clear message: Ontario will never be “first” in anything, so long as Ontario comes last in post-secondary and per-student funding.
Our college system is a safety net, reducing poverty, boosting wages, and supporting smaller and medium-sized communities in Ontario. And our work has held up that safety net since 1968 – it’s past time it was valued accordingly.
In solidarity,
Your College Support Full-Time Bargaining Team:
Christine Kelsey, Local 416 (Chair)
Shelley Gartshore, Local 124 (Vice-Chair)
Veronica Attard, Local 416
Dan Brisson, Local 672
Robert Holder, Local 243
Dana Leaman, Local 241
Xiaoyan Wang, Local 561