Please review the message below from our CAAT-A Divisional Executive. If you have questions please join us at today’s Practice Picket from 12-1 outside the Woodroffe Avenue campus entrance — we will be there and are happy to talk.
In solidarity,
Tracy Henderson, President Local 415
Dear members,
We are at a crossroads. The Ontario college system is being dismantled in real time in front of our eyes. We have seen thousands of layoffs and hundreds of program closures across the sector. This is not a mere crisis for us to weather—keeping our heads down and hoping it will pass. It won’t pass because it is not a ‘crisis.’ It is a deliberate plan. It’s a plan on the part of the Ford government to defund and starve our college system and then privatize. We have recently uncovered evidence of this privatization plan going back at least 5 years, and shared details of this investigation at Monday’s All Faculty Townhall. Our public institutions are being stolen from the communities they were established to serve! As the frontline workers of this system, we need to save the system because nobody else will.
Our full-time support staff colleagues are currently in a contentious and pivotal round of bargaining with the College Employer Council (CEC). As you may have heard, they received a strong strike mandate from their membership and have announced that if a deal is not reached by Thursday, Sept. 11 at 12:01 a.m., they will be going on strike. Two of their demands also heavily impact us: a moratorium on campus closures, and no college mergers. Simply put: their fight is our fight. We are all college workers and union members with a common cause.
We therefore encourage all members to stand with your colleagues on the picket line this Thursday. We support all faculty who choose not to cross the picket line–either in person or virtually—which can be achieved in a number of ways that were outlined at yesterday’s town hall. By respecting the picket lines, we build power through solidarity. OPSEU has enshrined this union principle into its Constitution and Policy because of the power that it brings to workers. To be clear: bargaining continues on September 9th and 10th and there is still a possibility that a deal can be reached before Thursday. But, if no deal is reached by the strike deadline, they will be on strike.
Rest assured that faculty will have the full backing and support of OPSEU/SEFPO. We’re living in a very different Ontario than 10 years ago. This is a defining moment in the history of Ontario colleges and by standing united across all divisions—50,000 strong—we declare that enough is enough, and that we will not stand by while campuses are hollowed out and our colleges are sold out from under us.
If you haven’t done so already, you can demonstrate solidarity by joining your local’s “Practice Picket” at your college on Sept. 10th. Sign up and find your local’s event details HERE.
The task ahead of us can feel daunting, no question. But when we stand together, we win. We urge you to reach out to your colleagues, families, friends, and community allies to talk about the decimation of our education system, and what we can do to fight back!
In solidarity,
Your College Faculty Full-Time Divisional Executive
Pearline Lung, L562, chair
Michelle Arbour, L125, vice-chair
Jeff Brown, L556
Robert Montgomery, L655
Rebecca Ward, L732
Your College Faculty Part-Time Divisional Executive
Ostap Soroka, L560, chair
Mirna Iskandar, L237, vice-chair
Dale Gartshore, L125
Angèle Gaudette, L655
Ben McCarthy, L556