OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick was in Thunder Bay last weekend for the Region 7 Leadership Conference, just a few days after the snap provincial election was called. Reporters from TBnewswatch.com and Global TV’s TBT Newshour caught up with Hornick and several other OPSEU/SEFPO leaders at Confederation College, where they were meeting with OPSEU/SEFPO’s College Part-Time Support members who are currently in province-wide bargaining.
Global TV’s TBT Newshour
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Provincial union president in Thunder Bay to talk elections
“We have dozens of activists from OPSEU who have gathered to talk about leadership and how to have influence in the upcoming election,” said Hornick.
“We’ve seen workers starting to organize across the province in response to a . . . snap election, and our members are very organized in working together to participate in that conversation and make the change we need in Ontario.”
Hornick’s trip included a visit to Confederation College. OPSEU represents 1,189 workers there, including 78 part-time support staff who are currently in contract negotiations.
“Those workers are the most precarious workers in the system, often the lowest paid, many of them are students who are trying to get by,” said Hornick.
They said Ontario has the most underfunded college system anywhere in Canada.
Sara McArthur Timofejew, the local union chair for part-time support staff divisional executive and vice-chair of the part-time support staff bargaining team, said they are looking for part-time support staff to be treated fairly.
“We’ve been in bargaining for 12 months now and it’s time for us to reach out to our members and get in touch with them about our next steps in bargaining because we can’t take these abysmal deals anymore,” she said.
“Just to give some background, we have about 15,000 part-time support staff across the province at 24 different colleges. About 50 per cent of those are student employees who are making minimum wage, and are the sole contributors to the college system,” said Noor Askandar, chair of the part-time support staff bargaining team.