Almost 10 thousand part-time support staff at Ontario’s 24 community colleges — including Georgian College — are casting ballots this month.
They are voting on whether to become part of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).
The Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered the vote to be held at different schools across Ontario from today until October 27th.
Part time teachers at the 24 colleges voted earlier this year in favour of joining OPSEU — but ballot counting is on hold because of a protest by the colleges.
OPSEU Senior Communications Officer Randy Robinson tells Bayshore Broadcasting News they had about 52 hundred people sign union cards — which is 60 per cent of the bargaining unit.
However, Robinson says the employer is disputing every single card-signer and is paying a legal firm five thousand dollars a day to argue in front of the Labour board.
The union currently represents more than 16 thousand full-time support and academic staff at Ontario’s colleges.
OPSEU claims that for decades, the part-timers have done the same work as full-timers — yet get lower pay, have no benefits and no guarantee of work from one semester to the next.