Message from the President

By Kristine Hansen, UWFA President

I hope we’ve all settled into the fall term, even if the summer weather initially made that difficult. This will be a busy year for UWFA, with the Collegiate and Contract Faculty units about to begin bargaining, and with the Main Unit contract expiring at the end of March, 2010. There will be many opportunities for member participation as we prepare bargaining mandates and conduct negotiations. I urge everyone to respond to those opportunities for input, and to volunteer for UWFA activities when the call goes out. UWFA members made an impressive show of solidarity this past year in refusing to accept salary concessions, and I’m expecting that same spirit of solidarity to stand us in good stead as we face this year’s challenges.

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Pension Plan Update

By Wendy Josephson, UWFA Pension Trustee

UWFA Appointed Trustees

Jim Clark has completed his one-year term as UWFA-appointed Trustee to the University of Winnipeg’s pension plan.  Many thanks to Jim for his hard work on behalf of pension plan members.  UWFA has appointed Hans Werner for a three-year term to replace Jim.  Wendy Josephson continues for the second year of her two-year term, and Karen Zoppa for the remaining two years of her three-year term.  Karen is continuing as the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the pension plan, and serves on the Operations Committee.  Wendy is on the Defined Contribution Committee.

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UWFA Bargaining Update

The Collegiate Unit Negotiating team is Karen Zoppa (Chief Negotiator),  Michael West, Jim Trellor, and Lisa McGifford. The draft mandate for the Collegiate Unit was approved. Now that this has occurred we  can begin drafting proposal language.

The members of the Contract Faculty Unit Negotiation Team are Hugh Grant and Lisa McGifford. The draft mandate for Contract Faculty bargining was approved recently by the UWFA Executive. Some proposal drafting has already occurred and we expect to begin bargaining this term.

The Executive Council has begun to look at striking the various committees needed for Main Unit collective bargaining. UWFA has been tracking specific matters that require attention in the upcoming round of negotiations.

It's Not Too Late To Donate!

The University of Winnipeg Faculty Association Bursary and Scholarship Fund is more than a third of the way toward reaching its goal of raising $250,000 in donations, and we raised this from nearly a third of UWFA’s members.  We’re excited to have done so well over the summer, and hope to push through to reach our goal by Christmas. 

In the meantime, the need continues.  The University President has promised to fund scholarships and bursaries to at least 60% of last year’s level.  In order to improve on that level of funding, donations are needed.  Do contact Pauline Greenhill at 786-9439 or p.greenhill@uwinnipeg.ca if you want to make sure that a particular award is given full funding.  I’ll tell you how to do it.  I’m also happy to answer any questions you may have and/or to help you direct your money where you want it to go.  Mavis Reimer (786-9185 or m.reimer@uwinnipeg) or Pauline Pearson (786-9853 or p.pearson@uwinnipeg.ca) can also answer questions.

When your departmental representative comes by with an envelope, we urge you to give.

Still Waiting...

By Pauline Greenhill, Women’s and Gender Studies

Remember the administration’s request in March 2009 that UWFA members take days without pay?  (See article “Who is better at math? Lloyd or Pauline” in the last newsletter (www.uwfa.ca/may-uwfa-news). While the University of Winnipeg President suggested that the University of Winnipeg’s administration had shrunk since his arrival, their own administration charts clearly indicate that they had grown in number by over 50% since Axworthy took over, greatly outpacing faculty growth at just under 18% for the same period.

During that meeting, I asked him if he would provide the figures to support his contention.

Still waiting.

A Cautionary Tale: Lessons from Thompson Rivers University

By Tracy Whalen, UWFA Secretary

It’s a cautionary tale for those of us who decide to teach a course with someone outside the bargaining unit—-in this case, a university president. A few weeks ago at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, professors Rachel Nash and Mark Wallin showed up for their first class of English 116, which they were teaching with TRU President Kathleen Scherf. They anticipated the media blitz which accompanied it—-reporters and cameras and questions in the classroom on the first day—-because the class was seen as a “rarity” (to quote a local publication). What they did not expect, however, is that they would ultimately be responsible for the course themselves. The TRU collective agreement prohibited Scherf from teaching at all; further, the other two professors were not notified about the status of the course until the day Scherf actually stepped foot in the classroom and was then pulled. The course was to have been primarily the president’s, with Nash and Wallin teaching smaller seminars. Right now, the two professors are quickly working to pull the much-publicized course together, taking what they can from Scherf’s notes and adjusting their schedules to accommodate new lecture times.

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Pop Goes the Union

By Tracy Whalen, UWFA Secretary

Unions pop up often in popular culture. We can find representations of union business in television, films, books, cartoons and other media forms. Both Entertainment Weekly and Chris Turner’s Planet Simpson named “Last Exit to Springfield” the best episode of The Simpsons ever. In that episode, Homer becomes (for a brief, brief time) union president of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, fighting for a union dental plan. Lisa Simpson needs braces more than Homer and his membership need the free keg of beer offered at every meeting. Chris Turner describes the episode as follows: “There are references to Citizen Kane, Batman, the Three Stooges, the Beatles and Dr. Seuss. Episode 9F15 of The Simpsons should be taught in schools, in history, economics, social studies, literature and art classes. It’s flawless” (84).

So check it out. And send along other notes about unions in popular culture. Is there a union video game? A film worth mentioning? A book we ought to pick up after the craziness of term quiets?

Send along a note to Tracy Whalen (t.whalen@uwinnipeg.ca). I’d love to hear from you.

Community May Not Extend Past Words

By Mark Golden, UWFA Member-at-Large

The University of Winnipeg’s commitment to the local community does not always extend beyond words.

A local academic publisher (and sometime U of W instructor in Sociology) has questioned the recent decision to contract out the management of the new campus bookstore to a mammoth multinational. Follett Higher Education runs over 800 college bookstores in the US and thirty-something in Canada.

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