Category: USFA e-Letter

University of Manitoba

One year ago today, members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association ratified an agreement after being on strike for three weeks. Seeking provisions on performance indicators, workload, and powers of Deans, UMFA members had voted 86% in favour of strike action. A further issue of deep concern was that the Pallister government had directed the university to extend its collective agreement by one year at 0%. As UMFA President Mark Hudson pointed out, such directives represent “illegitimate government interference in a constitutionally protected process of collective bargaining” and that the province had “unnecessarily endangered a complex negotiation through this misguided interference,” thereby jeopardizing the educational goals of the 29,000 students at U of Manitoba. UMFA made significant gains: the new collective agreement included workload protections, enhancements to collegial governance, and fair assessment practices.

Nonetheless, UMFA has charged the university with bargaining in bad faith during their contract negotiations because the provincial government had instructed the university to rescind a proposal that included wage increases, and replace it with a one-year agreement with a wage freeze. Their unfair labour practice complaint is proceeding.

Academic Labour Relations in Canada today

This fall has been particularly troubling with a number of strikes and strike mandates resulting from similar disputes in Canada over collegial governance by faculty members, fair workloads, compensation, the collective bargaining processes that help to protect those rights for academic faculty members, and the effects on students and their academic programs when these values are threatened.

Laurentian University

In September the Laurentian University Faculty Association received a strike mandate from its members with 91% of those voting in support of job action. Major issues in the labour dispute for LUFA included increased workload without extra supports to compensate, transparent governance with meaningful participation by faculty members, and a rollback in salaries. “Faculty are over-worked and under-supported,” the union said, “the university must enable us to provide a high-quality education to our students. We think the university should be run openly and transparently, with our meaningful participation. Our goal is to protect and promote a positive, enriching learning environment for our students.

LUFA president Jim Ketchen commented that “For over 35 years, LUFA and the university administration have, through our collective agreements, worked together to offer positive and enriching education to our students… LUFA wants to protect Laurentian’s learning environment from proposed rollbacks.”

After a 10-day strike, members of the Laurentian University Faculty Association ratified a new contract.

Teaching Faculty at University of Ontario Institute of Technology

The academics who are not in full-time tenure-track positions find themselves in particularly precarious working environments. Teaching Faculty Members at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, a small unit of teaching-intensive faculty with the highest teaching workload in Ontario, voted 85.7% in favour of taking strike action this October. Workload and work/life balance were the bargaining priorities for Teaching Faculty at UOIT, who had been negotiating for months to address their lack of job security, unreasonable workloads, and lower pay than tenure-stream faculty. Their mandate was simply to be treated fairly and equitably compared to their tenure-stream colleagues. “Is teaching excellence a priority at UOIT?” they asked. Just a few days ago on November 15, the Teaching Faculty unit was finally “heard” by the University and an agreement was ratified by both the membership and the Employer.

College Faculty in Ontario

After a five-week strike was ended over the weekend with back-to-work legislation, part-time college faculty in Ontario are returning to work today. The CAAT-Academic Divisional Executive of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union were striking for the right to academic freedom in their collective agreement, full-time employment, and a seniority system for their members who do not have full-time employment (70–80% of college faculty are contract and just 20–30% are full time).

Unlike universities in the province and other post-secondary institutions in Canada, Ontario’s public colleges concentrate both academic and administrative decision-making in administration rather than faculty. Contract faculty are particularly vulnerable to attacks on their integral role in the university. “Academic freedom—what should be the foundational value of every university and college—has never existed in the Ontario college system,” they explain, and as a result, “management exerts total control over academic decision-making. The impacts on students of how academic decisions are made—and who makes them—are far-reaching.”

Contract faculty sought equitability and fairness: there is no seniority system, and contracts are offered every 4 months. The employer’s proposed deal would increase the ratio of contract faculty, and OPSEU argues that colleges are using precarious work as a tool to cut costs, something that leaves students in an unfair situation where they’re now “paying more for reduced access to securely employed and fairly-compensated faculty who can focus on students’ needs in the short and long term.” OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas has stated, “We don’t want a Walmart model of education. It’s not good for students, and it’s not good for faculty.”

Acadia University Faculty Association strike mandate

On November 14, the Acadia University Faculty Association issued a strike deadline of Monday, November 27.

“After months of trying to get the university to bargain productively for a fair and equitable collective agreement, we have no choice but to call for legal strike action,” said AUFA President Stephen Ahern.

AUFA began negotiations in late March, but reached an impasse in June when the board refused to discuss key faculty proposals. AUFA filed for the assistance of a provincial conciliator in early September. After conciliation stalled on the first day, AUFA members voted 81% in favour of strike action.

The major outstanding issues for AUFA include restoring full-time faculty positions, addressing pay equity, achieving salaries in line with regional averages, and gaining a commitment to fundraise for a campus childcare centre. The board has rejected these proposals while asking for significant concessions, including clawing back the compensation of part-time faculty.

Collegiality

Many of these disputes contribute to a threat against collegiality—the participation of academic employees in academic governance. Collegiality depends on academic freedom, fair workloads, and treating academic employees as conscientious professionals whose expertise and participation in academic matters is both valued and exercised.

“At a time when the importance of academic standards is higher than ever, it is untenable that faculty remain marginalized from academic decisions,” wrote Kevin MacKay, Vice-President of OPSEU Local 240 last June. “The time for collegial governance, for elected, faculty-majority senates in each college, and academic freedom for individual faculty, is now.” Today is a sad day for Ontario college faculty. USFA stands in solidarity with all faculty members who are fighting for and defending these fundamental principles of collegial governance.

The university is moving to semi-monthly pay for all faculty and staff starting January 1, 2018.

This move is for compliance with provincial labour legislation.

Every month will be divided into two pay periods. First period will be from the 1^st – 15^th with salary payment on the 15th for salaried employees and on the 21^st for hourly-paid employees. Second period will be from the 16^th – the end of the month, with salary payment at the end of the month for salaried employees and on the 6^th of the succeeding month for hourly-paid employees.

This payroll change may mean you need to adjust the timing of automatic withdrawals for payments such as a mortgage, bill or loan payment. It’s a good idea to review your budget, expenses and financial obligations. Contact your financial institution and other related businesses before the end of December to make adjustments and ensure any automatic withdrawals align with the new semi-monthly pay dates.

For more information: https://www.usask.ca/semimonthlypayroll/index.php

At the recent AGM, after Senior Grievance Office Patricia Farnese reported despite unprecedented numbers of arbitrations, some members asked whether this is an attempt to strain the resources of the Association. Secretary-Treasurer Susan Fowler-Kerry reported that USFA remains in a good financial decision.

Almost thirty years ago, the membership of USFA voted to establish a Contingency Trust Fund (CTF) to take care of unanticipated circumstances such as strikes and costly arbitrations. Presently, the interest from the CTF is used to pay the membership premium for the larger CAUT Defence Fund.

Having said that, the Association’s greatest asset for preserving academic freedom and collegiality remains the willingness of our members to be vigilant that our processes are being followed. As reported by Vice-Chair Erika Dyck, members continue to step up to serve on a variety of Association committees.

At our Annual General Meeting, Senior Grievance Office Patricia Farnese reporting on behalf of the Association Grievance Committee (AGC) said that the number of grievances the Association is dealing with has been unprecedented.

Some highlights from her report:

For the second time, a member of Senior Administration was found to have discriminated or retaliated against a faculty member, and, to our knowledge, no remedial action was taken against the Senior Administrator. The AGC is questioning the accountability of Senior Administrators for actions against our members that violate the collective agreement and/or university policy.

She remarked that the Grievance team has become frustrated by offers to settle that remain unanswered for months, or in the 11^th hour when the Employer’s solicitor initiates an offer to settle, by which time significant legal bills have accumulated for both sides.

Members ask, “How can I help?” Naturally, we encourage participation in all USFA committees; you can contribute by just attending collegial meetings and ensuring that procedure is followed. Feel welcome to contact the Faculty Association for advice and details – you just have to reply to this email.

The Association has filed a grievance with respect to the recommendation for tenure and rank after a decanal level appointment.

This is not a personal attack on the qualifications of the unit leader, but a matter of upholding the integrity of the collegial processes defined in our Collective Agreement and protecting the jurisdiction of the search and tenure committee in every academic unit.

Existing procedures require that where a Senior Administrator seeks an academic appointment to coincide with an appointment to the administration, the search committee of the appropriate academic unit must be canvased in advance of any appointment. In addition, where the Senior Administrator has not previously held a tenured position, the prospective candidate could be appointed on probation or external reviews sought to demonstrate that our standards for tenure have been met.

To resolve this grievance, USFA is asking that the award of tenure and rank of full professor be vacated for this individual.

An Arbitrator recently ruled that the actions of a Dean in removing the responsibility for a University exchange program from a faculty member’s assigned duties for the 2015-2016 academic year was a violation of the collective agreement, and that the Dean’s action was discriminatory and retaliatory in nature because the member had expressed her intention to possibly file a grievance over her workload assignment.

The arbitrator’s ruling also notes that there was no prior consultation with the member about the change in the assignment, nor had this been discussed at a meeting of the faculty as required by the collective agreement.

Some time ago, as part of the UnivRS project, the University undertook to convert curricula vitae of faculty members to a standard format. The process of conversion has not proceeded as quickly as anticipated, and many faculty members have shared concerns with us about errors in the data entry process, limitations with the software, and standardized formats that do not necessarily appreciate disciplinary variation.

Challenges are common enough with technology rollouts. However, an immediate concern of many faculty is whether the UnivRS CV must nonetheless be used for this year’s collegial processes.

It has been confirmed to us that until the problems are addressed, other CV formats are acceptable. The Collective Agreement specifically references the 2013 guidelines (29 point form); the University has indicated preference for the 24 point form (that eventually UnivRS will use), and the Association has no objection to those who have completed the conversion.

Members of the Executive of the Faculty Association, including our Senior Grievance Officer, Patricia Farnese, had an opportunity to discuss forthcoming changes to computer security with senior ICT staff, including Associate Vice-President of Information and Communication Technology, Shari Baraniuk.

The plan includes increasing the security around sensitive institutional information, but also requirements for more security measures on “end point devices” (your laptop and desktop machines) that can be used to gain access to the University’s networks.

The ICT team understands that how faculty use computers varies widely on campus, from those who build software and hardware to those who only want a reliable word processor, email system and browser.  Therefore, a one-size fits all approach is not being proposed. Rather, the ICT team is committed to working with faculty to ensure that effective and appropriate security measures are put in place for every end point device.

The Association was presented with a draft copy of a proposed user agreement to be put in place once measures are fully implemented and was invited to provide comments and input. The ICT team is aware that the Collective Agreement states that computer files and electronic mail shall not be examined, and we are continuing to discuss ways to ensure privacy rights are respected while addressing security. Notwithstanding these concerns, the USFA recognizes that recent cyber attacks at other Canadian Universities underscore the real threats information breaches present to the institution’s stakeholders, including faculty members.