Welcome back

Dear Fanshawe students and supporters:

On Sunday, November 19 back-to-work legislation passed that ended the strike of unionized faculty at all of Ontario’s public colleges.

Faculty at Fanshawe were busy yesterday (Monday) with marathon meetings to develop semester completion plans.  Classes begin today (Tuesday November 21). We know that five weeks is a long time to be out of class. We wanted to be back sooner.

During the strike’s five weeks—and for the months leading up to it—the faculty’s bargaining team sought a fair settlement to end the collective bargaining process. We wanted to avoid a strike, and then—once the strike began—we wanted to end it quickly.

This round of bargaining was not about salary or benefits.  We lost salary that we will never get back. We are committed to your education, and fought for improvements to the college system that many students care about:

• Quality education that is informed by your professors’ teaching expertise, working collaboratively and collegially with stakeholders, and not just by college managers;
• More full-time professors, so that you know that we will be there for you for more than one 14-week contract at a time; and
• An equitable system of employment that does not discriminate between full-time and part-time employees; and
• Advance notice of teaching assignments, or at least a contract in place prior to classes beginning, for our partial-load faculty.

Our fight for these improvements is not over. We will continue to stand up for you and the next generation of college students as the unresolved concerns go to binding arbitration. During this process, an arbitrator will hear from both the faculty’s bargaining team and the College Employer Council’s team. Meanwhile, we—your Fanshawe faculty—will be with you teaching, counselling, and providing library services.

On behalf of the 540 full-time faculty and 300 partial-load faculty we represent, and the approximately 800 part-time and sessional faculty teaching at Fanshawe: welcome back.

 

Prof. Darryl Bedford
President, OPSEU Local 110

Representing full-time and partial-load faculty at Fanshawe College.