OPSEU gets strike mandate, college staff vote 71 per cent in favour

While nearly 30 per cent of his members voted against giving the union a strike mandate, the local union president for college support staff says the 71 per cent in favour have sent a clear message.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 731 president Richard Belleau, who represents 280 support staff at Confederation College, said the message is clear that his members are not willing to have concessions in a collective bargaining agreement they’ve fought and paid for over the years.

And just because 29 per cent of local employees don’t want to give the union a strike mandate, that doesn’t mean they don’t want the union to bargain for them.

"It’s a fairly strong mandate," Belleau said. "Nobody wants a strike. We’re at the table to negotiate a collective agreement but there’s absolutely no doubt that we will get the full support of the membership if we were to have to take some action."

The provincial average was 77 per cent. More than 8,000 college support staff across Ontario voted, and will be without a contract by Sept. 1 unless a new agreement can be reached.

OPSEU will meet with management in Toronto next week for three days of face-to-face meetings. Belleau said he’s optimistic that a compromise can be reached.

"Hopefully we get to the table next week and the employer recognizes that our membership is not willing to have concessions imposed on them and will seriously look at the demands of the employees.”

College support staff has only gone on strike once in 1979. As long as everyone bargains in good faith, Belleau said an agreement can take place.

"We’ve reached this point at almost every round of bargaining and we’ve been successful in being able to reach a tentative agreement by the appropriate date," he said.

But there are some differences this time around. Belleau doesn’t believe management has been clear enough in saying what concessions it wants to put on employees, and there seems to be a lot of articles that push for a two-tier wage and benefits package for new employees.

"We negotiate for all of our members and our consideration is the jobs for the future. We don’t want to go in seeking a lowest common denominator for our employees. They should all be treated fairly," he said.

"We’re not willing to create a lower tier of employees, especially new employees coming into the college system."

Given similar demands from such employers as Canada Post recently, Belleau said there is some concern about diminishing job quality in the public sector.

"There appears to be some change in the employer’s aggressive tactics in trying to reduce people and we know that there’s a widening gap between rich and poor. Whether this is contributing to employers wanting to widen that gap even more I can’t speak for them obviously but we’re clearly concerned about that.”

Taking good jobs away from the middle class is not the way to move forward, he added.

"We spend the money. That will move the economy. So I think the focus should be in keeping good jobs not necessarily reducing the wage and the opportunities for good employment in the future in the public sector."