Ontario’s governing Liberals are proposing to extend collective bargaining rights to part-time college workers if reelected.

The government has appointed Kevin Whitaker, who chairs the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the College Relations Commission and the Education Relations Commission, to conduct a broad-based review of the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act, said a statement issued last month by Colleges and Universities Minister Chris Bentley.

Ontario is the only province that prohibits most part-time college staff from unionizing.

“This is a very positive and important step forward that should have happened four years ago instead of on the eve of a general election,” said CAUT president Greg Allain.

The news was also welcomed as a huge victory by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and the Organization of Part-time and Sessional Employees of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology.

“College workers spoke out for education quality and fairness, and the government listened,” said OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas. “We are going to take this as a promise by this government to improve education in Ontario.”

OPSECAAT president Roger Couvrette said months of hard work by college workers across the province was coming to fruition. “This announcement comes because college workers worked hard and made it clear this was an issue of education quality in our colleges.”

Last year, the Geneva-based International Labour Organization ruled Ontario’s Act should be changed to allow part-time staff employed by the province’s 24 colleges to join a union and engage in collective bargaining.

And a June 2007 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that collective bargaining rights are protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms bolstered the workers’ cause.

Whitaker is expected to give his report by the end of February 2008.