About 9,000 part-time and contract instructors at 24 community colleges across Ontario are to vote starting Monday on whether to join a union.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered and will be supervising the votes at 60 locations between Jan. 19 and Feb. 5. The result will determine whether the part-time and sessional faculty will join the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said a news release from the union Monday.

Voting began Monday morning at Algonquin College campuses in Ottawa, Pembroke and Perth, and at St. Lawrence College campuses in Brockville, Cornwall and Kingston.

It will take place Tuesday at Loyalist College campuses in Belleville and Bancroft, La Cité Collégiale in Ottawa and Sir Sanford Fleming College in Cobourg.

OPSEU already represents 16,000 full-time support and academic staff at the colleges.

According to Roger Couvrette, president of the organization of part-time and sessional college workers (OPSECAAT), the union has been campaigning with the workers for more than four years.

The labour relations board ordered the vote after the union presented it with thousands of union membership application cards in December, the union release said.

Couvrette said he believes unionization would create "more organized, stable work environment" for the workers and improve the quality of education for students.