OPSEU Local 416 - Support Staff

Yesterday, the first-ever College Faculty Part-Time and Sessional Bargaining Team met with the employer to begin negotiations.

And the first time in OPSEU/SEFPO’s history, they were joined today at the table by solidarity guests from all four college divisions: part-time/sessional college faculty, part-time college support, full-time college support, and full-time/partial-load college faculty.

Representatives from EVERY division faced the employer together, speaking directly to the devastating impacts of lack of transparency on college workers across Ontario. The union also delivered an Unfair Labour Practice (ULP) filed around the employer’s failure to disclose the merger between Fleming College and St. Lawrence College.

When you come for one of us, you come for all of us. We are one big union and unity at the table is how we win 💪

Public Education in Ontario is under attack from Kindergarten to Post-Secondary. On April 29 join us in Peterborough or Cornwall to show your support for Public Education. Wear Red or Purple!

🧵 The announcement by Fleming College and St. Lawrence College leadership to begin the process of merging the two institutions is a direct result of the provincial government' failing to invest.

Just as we warned that without provincial investment, college campuses would begin to close – and they did – we cautioned that mergers were on the horizon. Ford’s government has clearly demonstrated an agenda to gut public education.

We know how this story ends: more cuts, and less support for students and communities.

For months, government officials and college presidents have sidelined direct questions about their plans for our colleges. The decision to blindside workers like this is an insult to the years, even decades, of their years dedicated to upholding our campus communities.

When it comes to corporate bailouts, luxury spas, or speeding up alcohol privatization, there's billions in public dollars to subsidize private interests. But when it comes to our public colleges, something we universally benefit from, Ford always comes up dry.

Resources are being drained from our communities, especially small and rural ones, in real-time. This goes beyond party lines – it’s about what will be left for generations to come.

1 in every 100 Ontarians is an OPSEU/SEFPO member. We are in every town, every city – and unified, we will fight like hell to protect the heart of this province.

Public services are here to stay, as are the workers fighting for them – and we’ll be here long after Ford is gone.

Full release: opseu.org/fleming-st-lawrence-merger