Bargaining Update
By Hugh Grant – Chief Negotiator

The negotiating team is back at the table, having met with the Board’s Team on four occasions since the New Year (plus a few sidebar meetings). We have managed to sign off on several less contentious Articles and have whittled down our differences on governance issues. There are important and substantive differences remaining on appointments (particularly with respect to limited-term appointments) and the evaluation/tenure/promotion process. We have also tabled an extensive revision on Intellectual Property (Article 17), and continue to press for the elimination of mandatory retirement.

Whether or not these matters are resolved by the end of the month, it is our intention to table proposals on the key monetary issues (workload and salaries) in the first week of February. We expect that at this stage the process will accelerate.

I assure you that we are cognizant of the time and share your impatience. It has not been a simple matter to negotiate the Governance aspects of a Collective Agreement that has been in place for five years. We do, however, expect to spend Reading Week working intensively at the bargaining table and, without promising any conclusion to our negotiations, we will be in a position at the end of Reading Week to give you a report.

Also in this issue:

• Policy Governance – The Carver Model – Michael Hohner & Kristine Hansen
• New Research – Paul Bramadat
• Faculty Association Lockouts – a perspective
• Ask UWFA – your questions answered
• Strike Watch – Karen Zoppa – DF Trustee

Bargaining Newsletter - February 6, 2008

A Mighty Wind 
By Karen Zoppa

Did you know that the CAUT Defence Fund has your back?

Founded in 1978, the CAUT Defence Fund now stands at over $19,000,000 in Defence of over 37 member associations, representing 17,000 academics across Canada. As a member organization, our bargaining units are protected by the full might of the DF.

The primary purpose of the Defence Fund is to provide strike benefits to associations while its members are engaged in a strike or lockout and experiencing loss of salary. These benefits are paid as a grant to the association, to be used at the local union’s discretion, usually as strike pay (which is non-taxable) for individual union members. Strike benefits are currently set at $77 per calendar day, and payments start on the 4th calendar day of the strike or lock-out. Benefits are calculated using the number
of persons for whom monthly dues have been paid.

The Fund provides financial support for arbitration to member associations who are restricted from collective bargaining or striking by legislation. As well, the Fund grants interest free loans for a period of six months to striking member associations, often presented as a giant cheque for $1,000,000, which creates beneficial media coverage and signals to administrators the level of support the union has.

The Fund lobbies on behalf of associations on strike or lock-out by writing letters and making phone calls to boards of governors, university presidents, administrators, and local politicians and by sending “flying pickets” from member associations to demonstrate in support of a member association on strike. Within the first week of a strike or lockout, representatives from other faculty unions travel on a given day to the strike or lockout site, with subsequent visits if the strike continues. They join striking faculty on the picket lines and bring their striking colleagues psychological (and usually financial) support, which provides to them a sense of national unity and increases morale. These support visits display publicly the national solidarity of the university teachers and librarians represented by the faculty unions currently members of the Fund. Such activities serve an important purpose as they usually generate enhanced media coverage, including national coverage.

For recent news and more information, go to: http://defencefund.caut.ca/English/Default.htm

In solidarity,

Karen Zoppa
CAUT Defence Fund Trustee for the UWFA

Also in this newsletter:

• Ask UWFA–eight questions answered! – Page 4

Bargaining Newsletter - January 16, 2008

UWFA Working For You
By James Hanley

UWFA filed five grievances between 1 July 2006 and 30 June 2007. We filed two policy grievances. One concerned the exclusion of the UWFA President from certain closed sessions of the Board. That grievance was resolved to our satisfaction. The second involved the departure of the former University Archivist and the transfer of some of that position’s duties to the University’s Corporate Secretary in violation of article 20.04. That grievance was unsuccessful at Step II and we filed notice to the University that we wanted to send it to arbitration. The University then settled this grievance in our favour.

We filed three other grievances on behalf of Members. One, filed on behalf of a contract faculty Member, was unsuccessful. Another related to a verbal promise given during the hiring process that did not appear in the letter of appointment. It was resolved to the Member’s satisfaction. The third involved a Member on an eight month contract who was asked before the contract began to teach a fourth course as overload. We grieved on the grounds that the position should have been converted to a twelve month appointment, as had happened with other Members, and that was resolved to our satisfaction.

In addition, we resolved a number of issues without filing grievances. We also clarified several issues through letters of understanding including, for example, the payment of TPDA and CDI to some of our Members.

I would like to thank the grievance committee (Karim Dharamsi and Barnett Richling), Kristine Hansen, and especially Lisa McGifford. I would also like to thank the members who helped me with various pieces of information in the context of our inquiries. And last but not least, I thank the members who came forward.

Also in this issue:

• Most of us forget about UWFA between negotiations, but some of our union’s most important work is done away from the bargaining table. Contracts contain provisions for resolving grievances, cases in which the employer has ignored the Collective Agreement or interpreted it against the interests of individuals (Individual or Group Grievances) or of the membership as a whole (Policy Grievances). It is the job of the Grievance Officer to help Members reach satisfactory resolutions of such disputes (usually in confidence). James Hanley outlines some problems he dealt with during his term as Grievance Officer.
• Hugh Grant, Chief Negotiator, answers questions to “Ask UWFA.”

Bargaining Newsletter - December 7, 2007