OPSEU is having a great 2018 and it will only get better. Together we have successfully won the fight to represent some 20,000 part-time support staff at Ontario colleges. This moment has been decades in the making, and involved hundreds of activists. We have raised the bar for precarious workers, and set a new standard for organizing throughout the labour movement.
Now it’s time to mobilize for bargaining the first-ever CAATS-PT collective agreement. We did not need to look far to find the perfect team leader for this job. I’m proud to announce that Marilou Martin has been recruited for this important role.
As temporary supervisor in charge of CAATS-PT, Marilou will build this unit of 20,000 workers into a powerful new force for labour rights in our colleges. Her experience as a long-time Chair of the OPSEU College Support Division, previous position as an OPSEU Executive Board Member, many years as local president at George Brown College, and time as the Executive Assistant to the President of OPSEU, will all be key assets in Marilou’s important new role.
Janice Hagan, Chair of the College Support Divisional Executive, will work with Marilou, dedicated OPSEU staff, and our on-the-ground activists. Together, this team will help put the structures in place that will support the CAATS-PT unit and locals at colleges across the province. We will mobilize for a strong first collective agreement and get prepared to enforce that contract once it’s achieved.
I’m looking forward to making history with you.
In solidarity,
Warren (Smokey) Thomas,
President, OPSEU