Strike vote underway for Fanshawe faculty members
CTV
Faculty members at Fanshawe College are now voting to give their union a strike mandate
They are issues that the union representing instructors at Fanshawe College say could dramatically impact the futures of staff, and it has nothing to do with money.
"There's no wages or benefits on the table right now,” said Darryl Bedford, president of Local 110 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), representing about 800 Fanshawe College staff.
A bargaining unit representing unions from Ontario’s 24 community colleges is currently in negotiations with the College Employer Council (CEC), which bargains for the colleges.
Bedford says 80 per cent of the Fanshawe College instructors are contract staff, working from contract to contract every year. The hiring list maintained by the college isn’t made available to the workers, “We feel that needs to be open and transparent and that’s what our partial-load faculty are asking for.”
Bedford says concerns about the status of contract staff have been compounded with word of a recently reached agreement.
"Fanshawe has signed an agreement with private college in Toronto to license, right now, four of our programs — but it will be expanding to more," said Bedford.
The agreement is with ILAC International College, a private institution geared to international students. The courses will be introduced in the spring of next year.
