OPSEU Local 559

Just thought I’d touch base at the start of the new semester.

Not a whole lot to report. We, of course have another year and a half to go on our contract so things should remain stable for a while at least.

Have heard no news about the situation regarding faculty and their on-again, off-again talks with Council. Let’s hope they’re able to settle with a fair contract.

By this time, our brothers and sisters in the Bibliocentre have begun a new chapter in their  respective employment odyssey at the College.

I’m sure you join me in wishing them all the best of success. They’ve survived two years of uncertainty so I’m sure what they face now is nothing in comparison to that.

The bottom line is that all who chose to stay at the College have been placed and remain within our bargaining unit. There were no layoffs! Please help and make them feel welcome!

You may soon see information appearing around the College regarding a self-identification survey coming out of the Office of Equity. This is a campaign that is similar to the survey that was recently held by our own OPSEU.

I would encourage you to respond to this initiative when it is launched. From what I understand, there will be no identifiers attached so you will remain anonymous.

What is sought is a snapshot of our employee makeup in regards to how it reflects the broader community we serve. It is the type of thing that you will see more frequently at almost all work places, both in the private and public sectors.

There is nothing sinister going on here folks. From the draft I’ve seen, the survey should take about 2 minutes to complete.

Finally, a reminder at this time as to who you can contact if you need assistance with labour related issues. Please refer to our Contact page.

Cheers all!

Larry G.
Ashtonbee
Ext. 7010

admin News

Vancouver bus driver Paul Stewart and his union have triumphed in a years-long campaign to eliminate a dangerous left turn from a downtown bus route. Here’s his story.

I had always disliked the left turn from West Georgia onto Chilco. It just seemed like a stupid place to turn left, across three lanes of oncoming traffic. The Stanley Park trolley bus has turned there for decades, to enter a loop to make its return trip. The oncoming traffic is leaving the park, travelling at 60 kilometres per hour or more, and many of the drivers are tourists, unfamiliar with local traffic. I believed that if something wasn’t done, someone would eventually die in an accident, either in my bus, or someone else’s.

On the safety agenda—for 20 years

After I first witnessed a near-accident at the turn I asked my union’s safety committee members what they thought of it. They were all aware of the left turn problem, and explained the difficulties in changing the route. As I found out, the issue had been on the safety committee’s agenda for more than twenty years.

Next I went to my supervisor, who said he understood the problem, because he had been a driver for 12 years, and disliked the turn. However, the next day he told me that his boss didn’t feel there was a problem.
I was furious. All the drivers seemed to realize there was a safety problem. So did the safety committee. Yet the bus managers refused to budge. I was beginning to believe that the inertia on this issue was so great that someone was going to die before there would be a change.

Refusal to turn left

So I asked my union rep, Jim Houlahan, why we didn’t just refuse to make the turn, and force the bus company to change it. Jim said it was a classic Catch-22: if you sign up for the route, you can’t refuse to make the turn, but you’re also not allowed to refuse to sign up. So I asked him, “Jim, if I refuse to make that turn, will you, in your position, and the union, support me?”

Jim got that ‘are-you-sure-you-know-what-you’re-getting-yourself-into’ look on his face, then said, “Yes, absolutely.”

Bus driving is a stressful job. But it got a lot more stressful over the next few months, as I began refusing to make the dangerous left turn at the Chilco Loop. The first time, I radioed my controller in advance, asking him to short-turn me downtown so I wouldn’t have to make the left turn. He refused, but a ground supervisor let me. The next time I stopped at the turn and parked my bus. So they sent a supervisor to see me.

“This is simply a stupid place for a left turn,” I told him. “There are too many cars coming around that corner, and most of them are going too fast.” Eventually, they called someone from the Workers Compensation Board, to rule on whether the turn was safe or not. The WCB guy simply said it wasn’t his jurisdiction because the street wasn’t a workplace.

I told my supervisor, “I will never turn here again.”

ICTU/CALM

admin News

Greetings to all.

I’d like to respond to Ann Buller’s update on the Bibliocentre, sent out on Lotus Notes at 3:00 PM this afternoon.

There are a couple of things that I’d like to comment on and clarify.

As Ann stated, the decision to close our Bibliocentre was made by the Committee of Presidents and was finalized at their meeting this week.

This will directly affect all 21 Support Staff members from the Bibliocentre. The fall-out of course, could affect many more of us than that.

The officers of the Local were present at the Bibliocentre meeting this afternoon. Though we had no input into the determination to close the Bibliocentre, we will be involved in trying to mitigate the results of this decision.

I want to say that, though Ann’s message specifically seems to target the Information Technology and Library departments of the College, the actuality is that any area could feel the effects of the displacements that are inevitably to follow. That is to say, I don’t know why Ann would centre out these two departments - the potential for displacements or bumps exist throughout the institution.

The Local Union will also be working with the members of the Bibliocentre to help in dealing with this closure in the weeks and months to come and will do everything in its power to minimize impact to the support staff.

There will be some stressful times ahead, as we move through the process of finding positions for our members and working as hard as possible to keep any full-time member from losing their job at Centennial.

I will keep you as informed as I can, being mindful of some of the confidentiality requirements that accompanies this process as it rolls out.

In solidarity,

Larry Goldin,
President
OPSEU Local 559

admin Bibliocentre

Three-week voting period for PART TIME FACULTY starts Jan. 19

Part-time faculty at Ontario’s community colleges are finally getting their say.

Late in the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 6, the Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered a union representation vote to let 9,000 part-timers and sessionals at 24 colleges decide if they want to become OPSEU members.

This vote does NOT apply to part-time college support staff. The union is continuing its card-signing drive for part-time support staff and hopes to apply for a certification vote for this group in the near future.

The Labour Board ordered the vote after OPSEU filed an application for certification on Dec. 2, 2008. To back its application, the union presented the Board with over 5,000 union cards signed by college faculty.

“At every college I’ve visited over the last two years, I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of part-timers and the depth of their desire to take their future into their own hands,” said Roger Couvrette, president of the organization of part-timers and sessionals (OPSECAAT).

“I urge each and every part-timer and each and every sessional to get out and vote YES to joining OPSEU.”

Voting will take place over a three-week period from Jan. 19 to Feb. 5, 2009. Labour Relations Officer from the Board will supervise the ballot boxes. Voting will take place at 58 locations on college campuses.

“In many cases the ballot boxes will only be in a certain location for a few hours,” said Couvrette, “so if you have been or currently are a part-time or sessional faculty member it is very important to figure out where and when you are going to vote.

“I encourage you to go directly to our web site at www.collegeworkers.org and look at the list of vote times and locations. Then mark your date, time, and place on your personal calendar.

“So many people have worked so hard for this opportunity. We cannot afford to waste it.”

Since the McGuinty government’s changes to the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act last October, all part-time and sessional faculty are grouped into a single province-wide bargaining unit. This means that voters may vote at any location in the province.

“You do not have to vote at the college where you work,” Couvrette said. “If you work at Seneca but live near Humber, you can vote at Humber, and so on.

“The main thing is to be sure to vote.”

OPSEU organizers will be working hard to communicate with voters over the next four weeks, said OPSEU President Thomas.

“Voter contact is key for all of us who want to see this organizing drive succeed,” he said. “Part-time and sessional faculty often spend very little time on campus, so I am calling on all OPSEU members who work in the college system to go the extra mile to reach out to them. This means wearing our VOTE YES buttons and stickers, putting up our VOTE YES posters, and answering any questions part-timers and sessionals may have.”

The OPSEU campaign web site at www.collegeworkers.org has complete information about the vote and the union, as well as a listing of vote times and locations across the province. Vote materials have already been shipped to OPSEU regional offices and organizers around Ontario.

For full information about the OPSEU drive to win union rights for part-timers and sessionals at Ontario’s community colleges, visit www.collegeworkers.org or call 1-866-811-7274.

The Part-Time Times is authorized for distribution by Roger Couvrette, president of the Organization of Part-Time and Sessional Employees of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (OPSECAAT), and Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

admin News

The support staff contract offer was ratified in a provincial vote. It was accepted by 67.1% of the members and rejected by 32.48%.

Centennial rejected the offer by 60.33%

Download the Memorandum of Settlement on our Resources page.

admin Negotiations