The trend towards privatization threatens education quality at Ontario Colleges, and is one of the four key issues your union has brought to the table for discussion during this round of negotiations.
As most of you know, Northern has recently established a partnership with Pures College, a private career college in Toronto. If you are unfamiliar with this agreement, please refer to our CESC report submitted at the Local 653 General Membership Meeting this past May. While this type of arrangement is new to us at Northern, it has been going on at several other colleges for many years now.
Privatization trends like this are the focus of the latest round of communications from our negotiating team. R.M. Kennedy’s latest Blog post gives a concise overview of the issue, and the third issue of Ontario’s Public Colleges at 50: A Better Plan provides a more detailed study. If you like videos, start with the excellent 2-minute presentation embedded below (or watch it on YouTube).
These are big issues that are now affecting the quality of education in the college system. Please take the time to read the communications from your bargaining team at www.collegefaculty.org and show your support for these important issues.
In Solidarity,
OPSEU Local 653 Executive