New Collective Agreement Ratified for OPSEU’s College Staff
It’s always good news when any sort of strike or work stoppage is avoided in education. Earlier this week, 88.8 percent of faculty from Ontario’s 24 colleges voted to ratify a new collective bargain agreement.
“I commend the College Faculty bargaining team and all of our faculty members on the achievement of this new agreement,” said OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas.
“They have successfully defended our education system against some truly terrible proposals by the College Employer Council, which would have undermined Ontario’s colleges for years to come.”
OPSEU represents more than 10,000 faculty members at colleges across Ontario. Faculty members include counsellors, instructors, professors and librarians. Their new two-year agreement includes no pay increases, but contains improvements to job security for vulnerable partial-load workers and makes progress in clarifying the role of coordinators.
Their previous collective agreement expired on August 31, 2012.
“College Faculty have refused to allow the employer to disrupt the school year for hundreds of thousands of students,” said College Faculty Bargaining Team Co-chair, Carolyn Gaunt.
“This new contract is an indication of the depth of our commitment to quality education in Ontario.”
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