Why does OPSEU want to represent students?
The union believes that all workers students and non-students should have access to the advantages collective bargaining provides. The Colleges Collective Bargaining Act places all part-time support staff in the same bargaining unit. The College Student Alliance, which represents students at many Ontario colleges, believes college students should have the right to unionize. The CSA supports all workers within the college system, whether they are full- or part-time, and their right to organize and collectively bargain, CSA spokesperson Tyler Charlebois told a legislative committee last year. [After seeking a legal opinion] we concluded that students working on campus part-time during the academic year should not be excluded from the collective bargaining act and that they should be placed in a bargaining unit with other support staff workers working part-time on our college campuses.
