Two hundred part-time teachers and support staff at Durham College are being included in one of the largest union membership drives in Ontario history.

The Ontario Public Services Employees Union (OPSEU) has launched a massive drive to recruit more than 12,500 part-time faculty and support staff at colleges across the province.

OPSEU spokesman Roger Couvertte says part-timers have been struggling with a lack of job security, lower pay and no benefits for years, as a result of legislation passed in the 1970s. “When the Bill Davis government passed the Colleges Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCBA) in 1975, it specifically excluded part-time workers from the right to bargain collectively,” he explained at a press conference in Whitby Friday morning. “That was common at the time and it wasn’t a big deal because there weren’t many part-time people. Now, that has changed.”

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