Part-time support staff at Ontario colleges set to hold strike vote next week

Part-time support workers at Ontario's 24 colleges are set to hold a strike vote next week, potentially joining thousands of full-time workers as they enter their fourth week of walking picket lines.

Around 10,000 part-time workers are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). On its website, the union said they have been "working under an expired collective agreement" for almost two years.

On Sept. 1, the bargaining team informed the College Employer Council (CEC) of their intention to seek a strike vote to "put pressure on the colleges to come to the table, and bargain in good faith."

Part-time support workers are set to vote between Oct. 14 and 17.

Dave Strutton is a part-time steward at Conestoga College. Part of his role is making sure its 500 part-time support staff are represented in any union business.

He said sick days and standardized job descriptions for part-time staff are some of the "most important" demands the bargaining team has brought to CEC.

"If we don't have standardized job descriptions for every role, that means that managers in the midst of a bargaining term can just slap extra duties onto our workers," he told CBC News.

"People working these positions will sometimes be working more and more to the point where they can't do their job within the part-time hours, so they sometimes get peaked into 35 hours a week."

Strutton said he's received information from members within the college that they have been asked by managers to take on tasks normally done by full-time workers while they are on strike.

Strutton added that managers have also tried to change people's hours and shifts, which goes against their collective agreement.

• More than 10,000 college support workers go on strike across Ontario

"We require two weeks notice for any changes in hours," he said. "They have been struggling and hopefully that struggle will lead to the bargaining going a little bit smoother."

CBC News reached out to CEC for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.

Simon Black, an associate professor of labour studies at Brock University, told CBC Radio's Here and Now on Wednesday that part-time support staff potentially joining full-time staff on the picket line means "we're seeing a significant escalation of a labour dispute."

"It's pinning OPSEU not only against the colleges, but against the provincial government, which has underfunded post-secondary education, including colleges, for some time now," he said.

Black said part-time workers going on strike would greatly benefit striking full-time workers because colleges and most classes have still been able to operate.

"I think having both the part-timers and the full-timers on strike at the same time would mean there's a significant ramping up of pressure on CEC and on the provincial government to cave into some of the union demands."