THUNDER BAY — JP Hornick, the president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union, visited Thunder Bay this week to talk about the provincial election and the issues facing workers at Confederation College.
“(Nearby) we have dozens of activists from OPSEU who have gathered to talk about leadership and how to have influence in the upcoming election," said Hornick.
“We've seen workers starting to organize across the province in response to a . . . snap election, and our members are very organized in working together to participate in that conversation and make the change we need in Ontario."
OPSEU represents 7,329 workers in the region and Hornick said union officials are hearing from members that life is becoming increasingly unaffordable.
“People are struggling to find housing or pay their mortgages and rent. Grocery prices have skyrocketed. You have one in five children in Ontario are going hungry or food insecure. Those are statistics that we really need to pay attention to,” Hornick said.
Communities in Northwestern Ontario are particularly hard-hit, they said.
“These are the places where we need to have people understand what the effects of the cuts to public services are, because you're feeling them in your day to day lives.
"It's important to get out to make sure that we're not just entrenched in cities, and that we're not just having conversations with people we already know and agree with, these are the communities that are the strongest and the heartbeat of Ontario. I think it is absolutely imperative for all of us to be getting out and travelling and talking to one another about what your experiences are here,” said Hornick.
Hornick's trip included a visit to Confederation College. OPSEU represents 1,189 workers there, including 78 part-time support staff who are currently in contract negotiations.
“Those workers are the most precarious workers in the system, often the lowest paid, many of them are students who are trying to get by,” said Hornick.
They said Ontario has the most underfunded college system anywhere in Canada.
Sara McArthur Timofejew, the local union chair for part-time support staff divisional executive and vice-chair of the part-time support staff bargaining team, said they are looking for part-time support staff to be treated fairly.
“We've been in bargaining for 12 months now and it's time for us to reach out to our members and get in touch with them about our next steps in bargaining because we can't take these abysmal deals anymore,” she said.
“Just to give some background, we have about 15,000 part-time support staff across the province at 24 different colleges. About 50 per cent of those are student employees who are making minimum wage, and are the sole contributors to the college system,” said Noor Askandar, chair of the part-time support staff bargaining team.
Askandar said, “our employer actually filed for conciliation last week, on Thursday. We're trying to inform our members of that process and a potential strike mandate should we need it, in order to ensure that the conciliation process is as productive as possible."
McArthur Timofejew said there are a few things they are asking for, such as pay at least $1 above minimum wage as well as paid sick days for contract employees.
Askandar added they're also asking for equity, diversity and inclusion language to be included in the collective agreement.
"An example of that is to include chosen family within our bereavement leave language. And religious and culturally, for people who prescribe to religions and cultures outside of the Christian faith, that is currently in our human rights," she said.
Confederation College had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
