Carolyn Gaunt
Carolyn has more than a quarter century’s experience with our academic bargaining unit. Variously a steward, chief steward, and communications officer, she is currently president of Local 655 with 198 full-time faculty and 30-50 partial-load professors. One of the characteristics most valued by her membership is Carolyn’s ability to communicate directly and her willingness to confront difficult issues. She brings a strong understanding of bargaining processes and contract language to the co-chair position.
Currently teaching in the School of Business at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Carolyn has worked under both the counsellor and the professor classifications. Her course specializations include labour relations, collective bargaining, and organizational behaviour. She coordinates the Human Resources Management post-diploma program at the college.
Carolyn’s experience includes work with various union-management committees including workload monitoring, college employment stability, return-to-work, and the academic campus committee (unon-college committees); this includes working on both workload arbitration and grievance arbitration complaints. Carolyn’s academic background includes an MBA and doctoral level studies in advanced leadership. On a personal note, she is an avid gardener, spends time working with her husband doing home renovations, and enjoys relaxing with the family pets Harley, and Pai.
Ted Montgomery
Ted Montgomery has been a teacher in the college system since 1973. Following a brief sessional appointment with Centennial College in Scarborough, Ted became a sessional and then full-time teacher at Seneca College. He has always taught in academic upgrading programs delivering courses in a wide variety of subject areas, including English, Social Sciences, Contemporary Society, Basic Science, and Cinema Studies. Ted has been president of Local 560 for 25 years and a member of 7 previous bargaining teams. He was also a member of the OPSEU Executive Board for two terms and the Chair of OPSEU’s Constitution Committee for three terms.
In addition to college activities, Ted has been a basketball coach and referee for many years and is currently the Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Basketball Officials. This past April, Ted was elected to serve as the Speaker of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
Ted says, “Local delegates have elected a strong team with a good balance of experience and new members. The team will be working hard from now until a settlement is reached. Our goal is to deliver a contract by August 31st that the members will ratify. Look for some new and innovative approaches.”
Rod Bain
This is Rod’s second time on a bargaining team. He is a Professor in the Traditional and Heritage Masonry Program at Algonquin College. Rod is a mason and carpenter by trade. After earning a diploma in Technological Education at Queen’s University, Rod began his teaching career at Algonquin College’s Perth Campus.
Rod is a steward with his local, where he is a member of the College Employment Stability Committee, a member of the Workload Monitoring Group, and serves as a certified member of the Perth Campus Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee.
Rod has always been a forceful and effective advocate and defender of the Collective Agreement rights for all faculty. His determination and tenacity have been invaluable both as a steward and as a campus organizer for the OPSEU Part-Time campaign. Outside of the Union and College duties, Rod organizes hockey for the students at his campus and is a hobbyist beekeeper. He looks forward to working with the team to help ensure our members get the Collective Agreement they deserve.
Gary Bonczak
Gary is President of Fleming College Academic Employees, Local 352. His is involved in most of the union/management committees at the college and at the Provincial level he has been on the Joint Educational Qualifications Subcommittee for three terms. His is a Professor in the School of General Arts & Science and has been at the college for 31 years. His teaching encompasses Organizational Behaviour & Psychology courses. Well versed in all aspects of mediation, Gary is on the current Fleming roster of mediators & provides coaching in mediation training. An integrative style is his preferred method of bargaining; however, he is very adept at switching to distributed bargaining given the situation.
On a personal note, Gary has been with his wife for 24 years. He has two dogs that keep both him & his wife quite busy. Gary is an avid squash & tennis player. He has been a volunteer at the Peterborough YMCA for over 25 years, mainly involved in squash programming.
Lynn Dee Eason
Lynn Dee started as a sessional Teaching Master at the North Algoma Campus of Sault College in Wawa. Within a few weeks of becoming full-time in 1984, Lynn Dee was involved in the first faculty work stoppage. Gaining a degree of control over workload through the Standard Workload Form showed Lynn Dee the profound influence of a bargaining team supported by a strong membership.
When the North Algoma Campus closed fifteen years ago, Lynn Dee began commuting between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie (220 km) along the shore of Lake Superior twice weekly. Lynn Dee serves both communities as Chair of the Sault Area Council and a representative for Local 613 on the Sault Ste. Marie Labour Council. She earned a Master in Education (Adult Education) degree from OISE and teaches computer technology, communications, and interpersonal dynamics courses in the Office Administration – Executive program in an accelerated format.
Lynn Dee serves as Local Vice-President and has been an active member of the Union College Committee and Workload Monitoring Group as well as newsletter editor. Lynn Dee’s activism is most apparent in her work with the Health & Safety committee where she works passionately to ensure obligations are met. Provincially, she serves on the Joint Grievance Scheduling and Health & Safety committees.
When not engaged in college or union activities, Lynn Dee listens to CBC radio, golfs, curls, and has been known to raise a moose calf or two in her backyard with her husband, Gord, an OPS member, and their Welsh terrier, Bran.
Benoit Dupuis
This is Benoit’s second time on the negotiating team. He started teaching at St. Lawrence College, Cornwall Campus in 1985 and transferred to La Cité collégiale when the college was created in 1990. Benoit has been a union steward, secretary, vice president and is now the president of his local. He has been on the College Workload Monitoring Group and a member of the College Employment Stability Committee and the Union College Committee.
Benoit is a professor in the Social Service Worker Program, where his teaching specialty is in counselling, case management, and crisis intervention. Benoit is also the chair of the Divisional Executive of the CAAT Academic Division and a member on the provincial Employer/Employee Relations Committee. These experiences have honed his problem-solving skills which his is bringing to the bargaining table.
JP Hornic
JP Hornick is the Coordinator for the School of Labour at George Brown College and represents OPSEU Local 556 as a delegate to the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. She has been an active steward for the past decade. In the School of Labour she teaches labour studies courses, runs labour education workshops, and organizes the Labour Fair, a week-long conference that brings into classrooms over 75 speakers on unions and social justice issues related to labour.
JP’s work as a steward has been driven by her commitment to making positive change. For the past 20 years, she has worked as a trainer on LGBTQ issues, and helped to found the Positive Space campaign at George Brown. She’s also run workshops and training for other colleges and organizations, including the Toronto Police Service (TPS). Her role as a trainer with the TPS was as the result of a successful human rights lawsuit that challenged their existing policies and procedures.
Within the college sector, JP has actively fought to protect and expand the rights of our members, both within George Brown and system-wide. JP looks forward to communicating and working with our membership in the demand-setting and bargaining process, and representing our interests in this next, crucial round of negotiations.
Jason Alward,
Communications Assistant
Ontario Public Service Employees Union