Residence dons vote yes to unionizing

University contesting vote due to alleged conflict of interest

Image supplied by: Journal File Photo
80 per cent of dons voted in the election.

Eight days after publicly announcing they were seeking to organize, residence dons voted yes to unionizing with United Steel Workers (USW).  

A text message sent out to residence dons on Thursday informed dons the vote to unionize passed. Approximately 80 per cent of all residence dons cast a ballot, with 73 per cent of dons voting to organize.

“We are proud of the solidarity that the dons showed during this campaign […] With their own Steelworker local union, they will have an advocate, a voice in their workplace and a legally bargained contract that protects them,” Amanda Zakhour, USW organizer, wrote in a statement to The Journal.

Residence dons are currently waiting to be formally certified as members of the USW union. Upon certification, dons will be able to elect a negotiating team that will be responsible for negotiating the terms of a new donning contract.

According to Avery*, one of the organizing residence dons, residence dons are currently “in limbo” following the election results. The University is contesting the election due to an alleged conflict of interest.

While the University wrote it was “pleased with the high voter turnout to the certification vote,” in a statement to The Journal, it did not speak to the alleged conflict of interest.

“The University’s administration respects the certification process and the outcome of the vote and is committed to the next steps in the process,” the University wrote.

While Avery did not indicate what the alleged conflict of interest was, they mentioned the University has cancelled all don team meetings.

“We unfortunately don’t know a lot from the University standpoint. We’re just hoping right now that the vote sticks and we get certification,” they said.

Dons are currently waiting to hear back from the Ontario Labour Board to learn if they have been officially certified by USW. Avery explained all donning contracts are currently frozen, meaning no changes may be made to dons’ employment prior to hearing back about becoming certified.

While no dons may be fired for organizing, they mentioned there were some concerns over the potential returning dons getting their upcoming contracts for the 2023-24 year rescinded.

“For returning dons you have to re-interview to get your job back. If you don’t ‘pass’ that interview, you’re effectively fired,” they said. “There are dons who quite literally have done nothing wrong and have not been hired back before.”

“There’s not a lot of transparency about what that process looks like or how [Residence Life] does [hiring]. Right now, the big fear is they’re just going to cancel a whole bunch of contracts they sent out a few weeks ago for rehiring, but we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Avery indicated the yes vote comes as a particular relief after several anti-unionizing emails were sent out by a group of anonymous residence dons on Monday.

In an email signed by unnamed dons from Albert St., Brant, Gordon-Brockington, Chown, Jean-Royce, Leonard, Smith, Waldron, and Victoria Hall encouraged dons to vote no “to make sure we do not get screwed.”

“That honestly scared us a lot,” they said. “We were trying to just make sure that we had enough support to win today.”

In terms of succeeding in the vote, Avery mentioned they are glad dons came out to vote regardless of how they cast their ballot.

“I’m glad that they took this opportunity to express their voice, that we live in a democracy, and that everybody’s able to have an opinion,” they said.

“It’s clear a majority of dons are in support of unionizing, and we hope that doesn’t create any conflict amongst the team or anything like that. We’re not going to treat anybody differently for voting no.”

This story was updated with additional information on March 24 at 1:40 p.m. and 5:40 p.m.

*Name protected to preserve employment with the University.

Tags

dons, Queen's, Residence, Unionization

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